Winter storm delivers heavy snow and ice to central United States

A massive winter storm walloped the central United States with heavy snow, freezing rain and gusty winds on Wednesday, threatening to make travel dangerous and possibly knocking out power for millions of Americans.

Winter and ice storm warnings and watches were in effect for a wide swathe of the US reaching from Texas and Colorado up through the Midwest and into northern New York until Friday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

The blast of frigid weather, which began arriving on Tuesday night in the central US, put a long stretch of states from New Mexico and Colorado to Maine under winter storm warnings and watches.

“For a lot of areas, we are going to be looking at significant amounts of snowfall and also ice,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The storm had already dropped heavy snow over much of Kansas and parts of Missouri by early Wednesday, with weather forecasters warning that the snow was only expected to intensify throughout the day. More than 30cm of snow was expected in parts of central Missouri and Michigan, and up to 30cm of snow could fall Wednesday and Thursday in central and northeastern Illinois.

Southern spots may see a mixture of snow and freezing rain that will rapidly deteriorate travel conditions on Wednesday, the NWS said. Winds gusts as high as 64km/h (40 mph) were also forecast.

“Expect power outages and tree damage due to the ice. Travel could be impossible. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute,” the service said in its advisory for Memphis.

More than 100 million people are under winter weather alerts that stretch from the Rockies to New England