Washington [US], December 24: A deep freeze enveloping most of the United States early on Friday combined with a massive winter storm brewing in the Midwest to leave two-thirds of the nation under extreme weather alerts, Reuters reported.
The looming storm was forecast to develop into a "bomb cyclone", unleashing heavy, blinding snow from the northern Plains and Great Lakes region to the upper Mississippi Valley and western New York.
Numbing cold intensified by high winds was expected to extend as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hard-freeze warnings were posted across the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, while significant icing was possible from a separate arctic blast hitting the Pacific Northwest.
By late Thursday, most of the Lower 48 states, from Washington state to Florida, were under wind-chill alerts, blizzard warnings or other winter weather advisories affecting more than 200 million people, about 60 percent of the U.S. population, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported.
The NWS map of existing or impending wintry hazards, stretching from border to border and coast to coast, "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the agency said.
Source: Emirates News Agency
