2025’s first winter storm was serious
- The first winter storm of 2025 was deadly and disruptive, killing at least four people, shutting down roadways in the Great Plains, leaving thousands without power and producing record snow in the Great Plains before aiming its destruction at the dense cities of the East Coast.
- It started as a typical low pressure system moving from west to east, but it quickly established its bona fides as a snowmaker in the Rocky Mountains before it helps pull cold air into regions as far south as Dallas on Saturday.
- By Sunday, areas of Kansas and Missouri hadn’t had so much snow in a decade or more, officials said, with Kansas City, Missouri, last registering 10 inches or more in 1993, City Manager Brian Platt said. On Sunday the Kansas City region had multiple readings of 14 inches and more, with Sugar Creek, Missouri, measuring 14.5 inches, according to weather service data.
- Authorities in Missouri urged motorists to stay home as they shut down roadways endangered by snow, ice and low visibility. Officials in Washington, D.C., said most nonemergency federal employees who work in offices should stay home today. Many public school districts across the storm’s path closed down in-class instruction. The number of customers across the Plains and parts of the Midwest, the South and the mid-Atlantic without power nearly 230,000 tonight, with the most — 57,881 — in Virginia.
- Storm-related deaths included that of Everett Carter, 61, a public works employee who suffered a fatal injury while he was involved in snow removal, officials in Jackson County, Missouri, said. Two people, Nathaniel Boyd, 24, of Wichita, Kansas, and Whitney Almond, 26, of Clearwater, Kansas, were killed in a weather-related crash in southwest Wichita yesterday, the Kansas Highway Patrol said. A man yet to be identified whose body was found this morning most likely died as a result of the cold weather in Houston, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County said.
- The storm temporarily shut down Kansas City International Airport in Missouri on Saturday, leaving the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs players temporarily stranded on a plane destined for Denver, where the Broncos eventually beat the team 38-0. Today, Ronald Reagan National Airport in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.’s city limits, was shut down temporarily for snow removal after the storm moved into the mid-Atlantic. The front delayed and canceled thousands of flights departing from Reagan, Kansas City, Indianapolis and other storm-affected cities.
- As the storm departs overnight — the weather service said it would move offshore — it's drawing cold air behind it, with high temperatures from northern Texas and the Plains to the mid-Atlantic expected to be 5 to 20 degrees below average.
Swath of darkness follows storm's path as nearly 230,000 remain without power
A wide swath of blacked-out businesses and residences has followed the path of the storm as it moved from Missouri to Virginia since the weekend.
Utility tracker PowerOutage.us' data show nearly 230,000 utility customers in seven states remained without power as the storm was expected to exit off the Atlantic coast overnight, with cold air forecast to fill in behind it.
The National Weather Service said today that high temperatures from the Great Plains to the East Coast were likely to be 5 to 20 degrees below average in the wake of the blizzard-producing front.
The state with the most customers without power tonight is Virginia, which had 57,881 utility clients in the dark, according to PowerOutage.us. It was followed by Kentucky (37,786) and Indiana (37,214), the tracker's data show.
Passengers endure blocks-long line for jet-speed travel out of Missouri
The marvel of air travel has its costs, and one of them is enduring a blocks-long security screening line required for departing passengers at Kansas City International Airport in Missouri today.
The airport was subjected to a weather-related closure Saturday, and it has continued to feel the effects of a blizzard-producing weather system that has moved into the mid-Atlantic and the East Coast tonight.
Amid weather-related flight cancellations and delays, passengers heading for departure gates were subjected to a seemingly never-ending line to get through Transportation Security Administration screening.
Heeding advice to arrive exceedingly early may be paying off.
The airport was the source of 60 canceled departures and 53 delayed flights out of the facility, ranking it seventh in the country for cancellations and delays, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
Zoos battle it out with imagery of cute animals amid winter backdrop
The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., wasn't the only place with furry animals frolicking amid a backdrop of winter weather today.
Zoos in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Atlanta did their best to capture some of the "awws" aimed at giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao, who played in a 5-inch blanket of snow today, the zoo posted on X.
Philadelphia produced a strong challenge to the National Zoo's bid for national attention when it posted a video of snow leopard Marcy rolling on her back in fresh snow produced by the potent winter storm that moved over the Eastern Seaboard today.
"Sleigh weather or slay weather, snow leopard Marcy chooses the latter," the zoo said on Instagram.
Extra credit goes to the Philadelphia Zoo for presenting an animal whose habitat is often snow-covered.
The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore brought different weapons to this cute fight: bobcat Kilgore and otter Brie, both seeming a little bewildered by the powder that surrounded them today.
The Maryland Zoo said on X that the two, presented in their separate habitats, "were having a ball in their winter wonderland."
The Atlanta Zoo is unlikely to win the day's battle for cozy supremacy, but its effort was heroic, as it presented to the world a video of one of its African lions rolling around on its back, making snow angels — on a dry surface devoid of snow.
The brunt of the storm missed Atlanta, with only trace amounts of precipitation recorded in the last 24 hours, according to National Weather Service data. A photo-op could be forthcoming, however, as possible snow was in the forecast for the region Friday.
Travelers see relief after record Kansas City snowfall cancels flights
Flights in and out of Kansas City, Missouri, have resumed after record snowfall stranded many passengers over the weekend.
As eastern half of U.S. gets snow, California faces fire weather
As much of the country braved horizontal snow flurries and frigid temperatures, California faced the flip side of such winter treachery — warm days, dry winds and their dreaded sum: fire weather.
The forecast is not that unusual, especially after back-to-back winters of prodigious rain and snow. The National Weather Service, however, calls for "extreme fire weather" tomorrow and Wednesday that will be caused by a "life-threatening and destructive windstorm," according to its regional messaging.
A red flag warning is in effect for more than 18 million people today, according to the weather service. It signals a forecast of winds greater than 20 mph and relative humidity of less than 25%, among other factors, and it is the weather service's most dire alert for fire conditions.
For tomorrow and Wednesday, the weather service's Oxnard, California, office forecasts 80 mph to 100 mph offshore winds in the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and 50 mph to 80 mph offshore winds for the coastal flatlands, inland valleys, and omnipresent canyons of the Los Angeles area.
The weather service's San Diego office said the winds and warmth could linger through Thursday for parts of Southern California such as Orange County and the Inland Empire, where gusts of 50 mph were also forecast.
High wind warnings were otherwise scheduled from tomorrow morning through Wednesday for urban Southern California from Ventura County to the Mexico border.
Forecasters say a low pressure system expected to park over northern Mexico will help push winds from the north or the northeast over the desert and mountains toward the ocean, the opposite of the typical onshore weather pattern and one that heats the air as it compresses and descends from the higher elevations east of the state's biggest cities.
The offshore winds, also known as Santa Ana winds, have the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on edge. It said it is moving 45 engine teams and six hand crews of firefighters from Northern California to the southern half of the state to prepare, according to a statement.
And, noting that 95% of wildfires are human-caused, it is urging Californians to be careful with tow chains, parking locations near brush, and mowing and trimming, which should be put off, the department said in a statement.
Volunteer drivers keep first responders moving in Kansas City snow
Members of the KC Off Road Snow Squad hit the road during this weekend's record snowfall in Kansas City, Missouri, to help nurses, doctors and first responders make it to work.
Runways shutting down at D.C.-area airport for crews to clear snow and ice
Ronald Reagan National Airport, in Virginia just outside Washington's city limits, said it was temporarily closing down its runways tonight.
The airport wrote on X that it would allow its crews to "focus on snow removal and prevent refreezing on the airfield." All inbound flights were being held at their airports of origin until at least 6 p.m. ET, according to Flight Aware.
Storm creates winter wonderland for playful pandas
For some furry friends, the severe snow has created a welcome wintry playground.
Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao enjoyed frolicking in about 5 inches of snow that blanketed the Washington, D.C., area and their outdoor habitats at the National Zoo this morning,
The zoo shared video of the bears rolling around in the snow and playing in snow-dusted trees.
The sweet duo will make their public debut at the zoo on Jan. 24.
Two-thirds of the U.S. in temps 10 to 20 degrees below average
As the storm heads east off the mid-Atlantic, a deep chill has settled in along the eastern two-thirds of the country, with temperatures forecast to remain 10 to 20 degrees below average through midweek. Little improvement is expected after that: Temperatures are still forecast to stay below average through the end of the week.
Tomorrow will be blustery across the Northeast, with favorable conditions for lake-effect snow downwind of the Great Lakes and some upslope snow in northern New England.
Meanwhile, meteorologists are already keeping an eye out for the next winter storm, which could come Thursday through Saturday. While there is still high uncertainty about exactly where the heaviest snow could fall, the trend is for wintry precipitation to hit areas from Texas to the mid-Atlantic.
The storm is expected to develop Thursday over the southern Plains, where rain, snow and ice could break out in cities like Oklahoma City and Dallas, as well as Little Rock, Arkansas, overnight into Friday.
On Friday, the storm is forecast to move east, bringing rain and storms to the Gulf Coast and the Southeast and snow to the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. Nashville, Tennessee, may get snow.
And on Saturday, snow could hit parts of the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, but the track of the storm is still largely unpredictable.
Missouri highway patrol responded to over 1,000 stranded motorists
The Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to calls for over 350 crashes and over 1,000 stranded motorists as the winter storm barreled through yesterday.
Overall, there were over 2,000 calls for service through last night, including one death.