A dangerous winter storm is bearing down on the Northeast and Midwest Thursday morning, bringing hazardous travel conditions and slippery roads.
By early in the morning, Central Park in New York City had already seen a half an inch of snow and winter weather advisories were in place across New York. Many schools were delayed or closed during the storm across the tri-state area.
“We urge all New Yorkers to continue to exercise caution when traveling,” the New York City Public School District said in a social media post.
More than 126 million people are impacted by the inclement weather, which stretches from the Great Lakes to the northern mid-Atlantic regions. The storms have caused chaos for travelers in countless cities including Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit.
“No no no and NOOOOO, I’ve had enough,” West Virginia resident Allison Williams posted on Facebook.
The feeling was shared by many across social media who shared what they saw in their hometowns.
“Can't stand snow. My son does snow removal so I'm happy for him. Be careful folks. Didn’t see ice in the driveway and well ..I’m sore ! Haha,” Massachusetts resident Debbi McCormack shared on Facebook.
“Very slick here…I even put down ice melt ahead of time, but the sleet was very thick so the ice melt did not help!” Pennsylvania resident Karen Wolf shared on social media.
Communities across the U.S. were dealing with the winter storm that has moved west throughout the week. Forecasters in Chicago said that the storm could bring briefly heavy snow of up to three inches in just a few hours Thursday morning.
“Snow then changes to sleet/light freezing rain with diminishing intensity. Temperatures remain near or below freezing through Thursday afternoon,” it wrote.
Crashes were reported in Des Moines, Iowa, according to WHO 13.
Between two to five inches of snow are anticipated in much of New England, and up to half an inch of ice was possible across parts of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
More than 54,000 customers are without power in the Mountain State, where water rescues were underway due to heavy flooding around the western hub of Charlotte. Outages also extended to Pennsylvania, where just nearly 1,800 customers were affected, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.US.
In Philadelphia, dozens of flights were canceled, with tracker FlightAware reporting more had been impacted in Boston and New York.
"The roads are not great — snow-covered, packed down. It is certainly slippery, and that is going to be the case as we go through the afternoon," WCVB Chief Meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon said.
While the storm is expected to progress eastward on Thursday, the eastern U.S. won’t see much a break. Another storm is forecast to follow by the weekend with similar impacts, according to AccuWeather.
It will shift across the Plains and Ohio Valley through Friday night, spreading rain, ice, and snow.
"The storm this weekend is just the next in a series of storms that is part of the pattern change that began late last week," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said.
