Millions of Americans were hit by a major winter storm on Monday that brought heavy snow, ice, strong winds and freezing temperatures as it moved east out of the center of the country and into the mid-Atlantic region, having killed at least four people the day before.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) issued winter storm warnings and advisories stretching from Kansas and Missouri to New Jersey as moderate to heavy snow fell from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic region.
A state of emergency was declared in several states, including Kansas, Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas and Washington DC, as well as parts of New Jersey, with officials urging people to stay home and off the roads, as the deadly storm roared in.
The storm produced more than 6in of snow in many areas across the mid-Atlantic region, including the Washington DC metro area, Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware, according to the National Weather Service, with several more inches of snow expected through Monday afternoon and evening.
Firefighters shovel snow in front of their station on Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky. Photograph: Luke Sharrett/Getty Images And while some areas on Monday afternoon began experiencing a lull, the National Weather Service has warned that more snowfall is expected late Monday afternoon or early evening in areas including Virginia, Washington, DC and parts of Pennsylvania.
“Another round of snow is expected this evening near & south of the Philly metro, with additional snowfall accumulations of 1-3 inches possible” the NWS for the Philadelphia and Mount Holly region said.
The NWS in the Baltimore and Washington DC area also said on Monday afternoon that the snow would “increase in coverage again across the area” later on Monday evening until around 11pm, before being expected to cease.
The storm hit the midwest region of the US over the weekend, and brought heavy snow and ice to roads in areas including Kansas and Missouri.
On Sunday, Kansas City international airport recorded 11in (27cm) of snow, according to the National Weather Service there. This marks the fourth-largest single-day snowfall total in Kansas City since records began in 1888.
In Topeka, Kansas, the weather service reported 14.1in (36.8cm) of snow, which is the third-highest single-day snowfall on record for that area.
In Ohio, a record snowfall of 8.4 inches was set in Cincinnati on Sunday, breaking a record of 6.9in set in 1977. On Monday afternoon, 8.7in of snow were recorded in Wilmington, Ohio.
In Kentucky, Lexington received 5in of snow on Sunday, breaking the previous daily snowfall record inthe city, which was 2.8in in 1979. As of 1pm on Monday, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky international airport recorded 10.4in of snow.
On Sunday night, the Missouri state highway patrol reported 1,043 stranded motorists, 356 crashes, 31 injuries, and one fatality related to the storm.
In addition, Missouri state police reported that another person was killed after getting hit by a dump truck sliding on a slick road in Jackson county.
Two people were also reportedly killed in a single-vehicle crash in Sedgwick county, Kansas, on Sunday evening, according to the Kansas highway patrol.
A road covered with snow in Shawnee, Kansas, on Sunday. Photograph: Chase Castor/Getty Images On Monday, the weather service said that an additional 2 to 4in of snow was expected to fall across parts of the Ohio valley and central Appalachians, where travel disruptions will continue.
The National Weather Service recorded 18in of snow in Kansas on Monday morning and several feet of snow in upstate New York.
As of 3.30pm ET on Monday, more than 200,000 customers were experiencing power outages across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, and Illinois, according to PowerOutage.us.
Additionally, more than 1,900 flights in the US were canceled and more than 5,000 flights within, into or out of the country experienced delays, according to FlightAware.com.
Ronald Reagan Washington national airport has reported the highest number of cancellations so far, with 262 departing flights and 214 arriving flights canceled as of 3.30pm ET.
Many schools and government offices were closed on Monday in several affected areas including parts of Washington, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania and others. And in some regions, school districts have canceled classes again for Tuesday.
In Fayette county, Kentucky, schools will be closed until Wednesday due to the weather, the school district said.
All federal offices in the Washington area were also closed on Monday. However, a joint session of Congress met at the US Capitol to certify Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, four years after his supporters stormed the building to try to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.
A woman goes skiing with a dog near the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Monday. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters Even states in the south such as Texas, Louisiana and Florida were expecting wind chills and below-freezing temperatures in some areas on Monday, into Tuesday.
The storm was expected to quickly exit the country eastward into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday night, the NWS said.
The freezing weather has been attributed to disturbances in the polar vortex, a large, three-dimensional ring of strong winds. Normally, the polar vortex spins around the north pole, but occasionally it extends down into the United States, Europe or Asia.
Studies show that a rapidly warming Arctic is partly responsible for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its reach, the Associated Press reported.