Winter storm hits central US, barrels toward Washington

(Reuters) – A winter storm brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures to a broad swath of the U.S. on Sunday, with some 60 million people across more than a dozen states from Kansas to New Jersey under winter weather warnings and advisories.

The storm was moving toward the mid-Atlantic, where Washington, D.C. was bracing for heavy snow and bitter cold on Monday, the same day the U.S. Congress is set to meet and formally certify Republican Donald Trump’s election as president.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Sunday the weather would not prevent lawmakers from carrying out their duties. But federal offices in the nation’s capital will be closed, the Office of Personnel Management announced.

Kansas and parts of northwestern Missouri were enduring blizzard conditions, the National Weather Service said. Roadways were blanketed in snow and ice, and officials urged residents to avoid travel.

Much of the main artery in Kansas, Interstate 70, was closed throughout Sunday due to heavy snow and ice.

In Missouri, the state police were sweeping a shut-down stretch of more than 50 miles on Interstate 29, searching for stranded motorists. As of late Sunday afternoon, troopers had responded to nearly 600 stranded drivers and 285 crashes, the agency said on X.

Total (EPA:TTEF) snowfall of between six and 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) was expected from southern Ohio to Washington. Hundreds of schools announced in advance that they would not open on Monday due to the storm, including public schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia.

In northern Kentucky and southern West Virginia, freezing rain and sleet will produce “hazardous ice accumulations,” the service said. The back end of the storm system, meanwhile, was producing severe thunderstorms capable of spinning off tornadoes in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The storm forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights, including more than 275 in both Kansas City and St. Louis, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.

Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia and Virginia, declared states of emergency.

The storm will move offshore on Monday night, but bone-chilling arctic air is set to move in behind it, with daytime temperatures on Monday and Tuesday predicted to be 10 to 20 degrees F below average from the Great Plains to the East Coast, according to the weather service.