Looming blizzard could rank near top 10 to hit Eastern US

Models have so far been consistent showing the storm could drop up to 2 feet of powder (with more in high altitudes) in a bull’s-eye centered on D.C. and Virginia, with up to a foot possible in contiguous states. Hundreds of accidents left drivers stuck for hours in icy gridlock after efforts to lay salt ahead of the dusting proved ineffective.

A strong winter storm is expected to affect the region starting late Thursday night (January 21) and continuing through early Sunday, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown. Already, several people have died in accidents on icy roads.

Tonya Woods, 42, a Metro station manager, said she had a much longer-than-usual drive home to suburban Clinton, Maryland, on Wednesday night. They called the mega-storm in Washington D.C.in 2010 Snowmageddon and officials said this storm could be worse.

Most major school districts in the region either closed Thursday or opened late. A decision on federal workers was pending Thursday.

North Carolina and Virginia both declared a state of emergency on Thursday in preparation for the storm.

As freezing rain continues in northeast Georgia during the day Friday, the Winter Storm Warning area will be expanded from 7 a.m. Friday until 7 p.m. Saturday to include these counties: Murray, Fannin, Gilmer, Dawson, Union, Towns, Lumpkin, White, Pickens. The area is expected to be inundated with two feet of snow, CNBC reports, bringing it very close to breaking a record set in 1922 when 28 inches fell. The heaviest snowfall, up to 2 feet, was forecast for areas west and southwest of the nation’s capital.

Washington looks like the bullseye of the blizzard, with New York City just inside the slow-moving storm’s sharp northern edge, which means it is likely to see heavy accumulations, Uccellini said. There could even be thunder-snow on Saturday, she says.in some of the more intense snow bands, and there could be wind gusts of 40 miles per hour.

“Heavy and blowing snow will cause unsafe conditions and will be a threat to life and property”, the weather service said.

“There’s going to be a pretty good swath basically paralleling the Western Kentucky and Bluegrass Parkways from Hopkinsville, up through Elizabethtown towards Lexington that could get ten to 14 inches and even some locally higher amounts than that”, Steve predicted.

But this wasn’t necessary for the blizzard about to hit the East Coast, which people are calling Winter Storm Jonas. Power outages are possible.

New York City canceled its Winter Jam festival in Central Park, after spending days bringing in artificial snow for the sports event.

American Airlines Group Inc scrapped all its flights into North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and Delta Air Lines Inc cancelled about 120 flights in the Southeast region. He says major delays continued through the night on the Capital Beltway in Prince George’s County, but crews are making progress Thursday morning.

“You put all the ingredients together, you can get a storm like this and it’s happening in real time”, he said. “Everybody was talking about the weekend”.