Nearly 1 million homes lose power as snow and ice hit US: NPR

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A woman is bathed in sunlight on Wednesday as she sat in a cafe in San Francisco. A severe winter storm knocked out power in California, closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and caused more than 1,200 flight cancellations on Wednesday — and the worst won’t be over for days. Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP hide caption

Toggle legend Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP

A woman is bathed in sunlight on Wednesday as she sat in a cafe in San Francisco. A severe winter storm knocked out power in California, closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and caused more than 1,200 flight cancellations on Wednesday — and the worst won’t be over for days.

Godofredo A. Vasquez/AP

A major and prolonged winter storm continues to bring heavy snow, blizzard conditions and significant ice from California to the northeast this week.

Nearly 950,000 homes nationwide were without power as of 7 p.m. ET Thursday. The vast majority of those outages — more than 820,000 — are in Michigan, where residents have been hit by freezing rain and ice. That’s according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages state by state.

“Power outages and areas of tree damage will be possible in these areas [from the Great Lakes into the Northeast]and especially for locations that experience a combination of stronger winds and ice buildup,” the National Weather Service predicted.

Snow was falling at high rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour near the Great Lakes and combined with winds of 40 to 50 mph. This would have significant impacts, including major disruptions to travel, infrastructure, livestock and recreation, the NWS wrote.

According to the NWS, parts of the Midwest and Northeast are expected to see an additional 6 to 12 inches of snow, with some areas receiving up to 18 inches.

Airports in the Midwest, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, have faced a plethora of cancellations. On Wednesday, more than 1,600 flights were canceled and another 5,200 were delayed. Thursday brought the same – more than 1,100 flights across the United States were canceled and nearly 5,600 flights were delayed Thursday night, according to FlightAware.

On Thursday, people make their way down a snowy street in the Grand Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The city experienced its second snowiest day on record. Drew Callister/AP hide caption

toggle caption Drew Callister/AP

On Thursday, people make their way down a snowy street in the Grand Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The city experienced its second snowiest day on record.

Drew Callister/AP

In the West, Portland received 10 inches of snow on the second snowiest day on record, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

The storm also brought heavy snowfall to parts of California that rarely see it. Mount Baldy — which sits east of Los Angeles at just over 4,000 feet — could receive a whopping 4.5 feet of snowfall by Saturday.

In addition to snow in the mountains, the NWS predicted heavy rain in Southern California and warned of “an increased risk of flash flooding” beginning Friday morning through Saturday.

Simultaneously, parts of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley are experiencing record heat: The NWS predicted temperatures of up to 40 degrees above normal on Thursday.

Atlanta was 81 degrees Wednesday, an all-time high in February. Washington, DC hit 79 degrees, New Orleans hit 83 degrees and Nashville, Tennessee was 80 degrees on Wednesday.

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