Blizzard-like conditions and dangerous wind chills continue to hit several states Monday, threatening post-holiday travel and leaving thousands of Americans in the dark.
“Part of the storm system is getting heavy snow, other parts of the storm along the cold front are getting higher winds and much colder temperatures as the front passes,” according to Bob Oravec, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland. “They’re all related to each other — different parts of the country will be receiving different effects from this storm.”
Roughly a third of those outages were in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us, leaving more than 114,000 residents in the dark.
Whiteout conditions typically occur with major storms and produce a drier, more powdery snow. But NWS has pointed out that it doesn't even need to be snowing to produce whiteout conditions, as the snow which is already on the ground is blown around at times, reducing the visibility to near zero.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned drivers of the dangerous conditions.
One to three feet of lake-effect snow is forecast from Monday through Thursday, and high winds, with gusts up to 75 mph in western New York on Monday.