WINTER STORM THREATENS DISRUPTION ACROSS U.S.

A powerful winter storm crept across the upper Midwest on Friday, tracking on a circuitous path that forecasters said could create a cascade of power outages, hazardous travel conditions and deepening supply-chain problems across a vast section of the country extending from the South to the East Coast.

The sprawling weather system prompted winter storm warnings and watches from North Dakota down to northern Mississippi and across to Raleigh, North Carolina, and areas of western New York.

But some ambiguity remained over how much snow, ice and rain the storm could bring in the coming days, especially in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, where another storm caught transportation officials off guard and stranded hundreds of drivers in Virginia this month.

“This is going to be a major setback for several days for companies trying to move products around the country just due to the scale of the storm,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist for AccuWeather, said Friday.

Inland portions of the Appalachians extending from western North Carolina and western Virginia to western Pennsylvania and upstate New York could get 12-18 inches of snow during the storm, Porter said. The rate of snowfall could be more than 1 inch per hour in some places, which could cause significant travel delays.

On Friday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and ordered the activation of that state’s Emergency Operations Center.

“This upcoming weather system is likely to include additional downed trees, more electrical outages and significant impacts on travel conditions,” Northam said in the declaration.

In the Northeast, the storm is expected to bring 1 to 3 inches of snow to Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston from midday Sunday to Monday morning, Porter said, noting that the precipitation would most likely turn to rain and could vary in amount if the storm shifts.

He warned that the storm could produce wind gusts of up to 70 mph along the coast.

In the South, ice loomed as a major concern for meteorologists, who said that northeastern Georgia and the Carolinas were expected to bear the brunt of freezing precipitation Saturday night into Sunday.

“While much is going to be said about the snow, we’re also raising the alarm of the ice storm that’s going to occur across the Carolinas,” Porter said. “It looks like that’s a recipe for extended power outages and tree damage in those areas.”

Some airports and transportation departments were already bracing for potential travel issues.

By early Friday, snow was falling across parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to the weather service.

“This snow will combine with gusty winds to produce slippery, snow covered roads and significantly reduced visibility,” the weather service said on Twitter. “Travel will likely become hazardous to dangerous at times.”

The storm system could storm system could plaster 70 million Americans with snow.