An enormous and dangerous winter storm took off across the US Wednesday, with 21 states in its path preparing for a blast of winter weather and freezing cold temperatures.
Nearly 100 million people are currently under winter weather alerts, and Americans living from the Rockies to New England — spanning over 2,000 miles of territory — are currently affected.
The storm is expected to take the biggest swing in the South, where a damaging ice storm is likely to hit Dallas and Memphis. Tennessee may also see icy roads and power outages as temperatures drop below freezing Wednesday.
Major cities like Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, St Louis and Indianapolis are all in the path of the storm, according to the National Weather Service.
By noon snow was falling an inch an hour in Chicago and parts of northwestern Indiana, according to AccuWeather.
Over a foot of snow is also expected to fall in parts of the Midwest — which could be the largest snowfall in a century for some areas.
In Colorado the snow started falling Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, and totaled at least 22 inches in Colorado Springs. Other parts of Colorado, like Boulder, had about 8 inches of snow fall overnight.
Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights, and local officials are urging residents in affected areas to stay off roads.
Over 1,400 flights scheduled for Wednesday have been canceled, according to the tracking service FlightAware.com.
As the Western portion of the country braces for snow, areas from Texas to Maine, are expecting the same, with the addition of ice. As the storm moves south and east, conditions will become much more icy.
Residents across the Gulf Coast of Texas to Tennessee may face an additional threat of tornadoes or gusty winds, according to AccuWeather.
With the storm heading as far south as Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has defended the state’s preparedness for the weather. The storm comes nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze took out Texas’ power grid, causing one of the worst blackouts in US history.
Over a foot of snow is expected to fall in the region between Missouri and Maine this week, according to AccuWeather.
On Wednesday morning, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan experienced a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow.
The Weather Channel named the system Winter Storm Landon.
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