Monster storm threatens to bury US east coast

ABC
Jan 23, 2016, updated Jan 23, 2016

A powerful storm threatening to bury parts of the US east coast under as much as 76 centimetres of snow has begun to hit Washington DC after coating North Carolina in white and blasting Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm had the potential to cripple a broad swath of the north-east, with about 61 centimetres of snow due to hit the Baltimore and Washington metro areas.

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“I want to be very clear with everybody. This is a major storm,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said of the system that could turn out to be one of the worst storms in its history.

“This has life-and-death implications and all the residents of the District of Columbia should treat it that way.”

President Obama working in the Oval Office as heavy snow falls. Supplied: White House.

The Weather Channel said more than 85 million people in at least 20 states were covered by either a blizzard warning, winter storm watch, winter storm warning, winter weather advisory, or freezing rain advisory.

Given the extraordinary conditions expected, Washington has been preparing all week for the type of blizzard that Ms Bowser said the city has not seen in 90 years.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said the storm could bring Washington one of its biggest snowfalls on record, eclipsing the “Snowmageddon” storm of 2010 that dropped 45.2 centimetres.

The storm is expected to bring snow of between 61 and 76 centimetres over 36 hours and winds of 48 to 80 kilometres per hour, the Mayor said.

“Visibility will be reduced to near zero at times in whiteout conditions,” NWS reported in its bulletin for Washington.

“Heavy snow and blowing snow will cause dangerous conditions and will be a threat to life and property. Travel is expected to be severely limited if not impossible during the height of the storm.”

The largest snowstorm recorded in Washington was the 1922 Knickerbocker storm, which inundated the city under 71 centimetres.

“I think it’s going to be a nightmare, the rates of snow we’re talking about,” said Marisa Kritikson, 27, a nursing student at George Washington University in Washington.

New York area could receive up to 46 centimetres of snow accumulation forecast, with Mayor Bill de Blasio declaring a winter weather emergency for the city.

“There will be white-out conditions,” he said ahead of the storm.

Snow, ice causes havoc across south-east

Governors of Arkansas and Tennessee ordered state offices to close on Friday as the storm pushed across their states and Kentucky.

A satellite image of the storm. Supplied by NASA.

It dropped 13 centimetres of snow in Arkansas and a wintry mess of snow, sleet and freezing rain in parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, meteorologist Dan Petersen said.

“It’s expanding and coming east,” he said.

“It will continue to grow as it crosses the mid-Atlantic states, where Maryland, south-eastern Pennsylvania and northern Virginia will get the heaviest snow.”

The Virginia National Guard planned to bring in up to 300 troops for help.

Across the south-east, government offices, schools and universities were shut.

In addition to several inches of snow, the Charlotte, North Carolina, area could get up to a half inch of ice, causing concerns about power outages and dangerous driving conditions, officials said.

Officials in North Carolina warned more snow and ice accumulation was expected into Saturday with some areas getting a foot of snow.

The Governor’s office reported four fatalities in weather-related car crashes since Wednesday.

City officials said everyone except emergency workers should stay off the streets.

Airlines cancelled nearly 6,300 flights for Friday and Saturday, most at airports in the New York and Philadelphia areas, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com. A further 7,000 flights were delayed on Friday alone.