Americans are facing their coldest winter since the late 1980s as weather alerts warn millions to lock down with blizzards and icy wind incoming. Midwest states of Illinois, Michigan and Iowa are braced for high winds and heavy snowfall amid a blustering storm, but warnings are in place in Sunshine State Florida and southern states such as Texas.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said temperatures of -50F (-45C) and -70F may be recorded by the end of the week in parts of the US.
AccuWeather forecasts between four to eight inches of snow between 11am to 7pm on Friday, in Midwestern state of Indiana, with peak gusts of 52mph at 9pm on Thursday.
Brian Lada, AccuWeather meteorologist, also believes a blizzard bearing down on Chicago is “potentially historic” and “one of the worst in recent memory”.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service describe the weather phenomenon “once-in-a-generation” cold snap. It began in the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, before moving east and will become a “bomb cyclone” by Friday.
It has been named Winter Storm Elliot by the Weather Channel.
“A surge of Arctic air behind a cold front crossing the U.S. through the week will bring widespread, dangerous wind chill temperatures through much of the central U.S. and a potential flash freeze from the mid-South to the East Coast,” a National Weather Service update said on Monday night.
“A major winter storm will form on this front bringing heavy snow and high winds creating blizzard conditions for parts of the Plains into the Great Lakes.”
The NWS has called the winter storm a “once in a generation type event”, with more than 100 million people across the US are under winter weather and wind chill alerts.
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Experts were left stunned by the US cold snap, with many sounding the alarm about climate change.
“The shock to the system so to speak – whether that’s human bodies or power grid – is going to be substantial because we haven’t seen this in a long time,” climate scientist Daniel Swain told the Guardian.
He added: “They may well be the coldest temperatures I ever experience for the rest of my life in this part of the world.”
In Florida, where sunny temperatures are customary, experts predict a coldest winter in 30 years.
More than 59 million people, including most of Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota as well as eastern areas of Ohio, have been placed under winter storm warnings.
A further seven million have been alerted to blizzards, while 57 million are under wind chill warnings, including Washington state in the west and Texas in the south, the NWS said.
