Infomastaro

By Anna Commander

Deputy News Editor

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The entire East Coast faces a weather warning or watch as a bomb cyclone is set to lash multiple states, and Florida is bracing for single-digit wind chills over the weekend.

Forecasters say the storm could intensify into a powerful nor'easter, with blizzard conditions likely in the hardest-hit areas and a prolonged period of dangerous cold expanding from the Ohio Valley to the Southeast.

Why It Matters

The storm is expected to rapidly strengthen into a bomb cyclone Saturday, a development that can sharply increase snow, wind, coastal erosion and flooding impacts for population centers from the Carolinas to New England.

The blast of Arctic air behind the storm increases hypothermia risks in parts of the South where residents just experienced earlier wintry weather.

What To Know

The National Weather Service (NWS) said a powerful Arctic surge would deliver dangerously cold, potentially record-low temperatures to the Upper Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, Gulf Coast and Southeast, while a rapidly deepening storm produces widespread heavy snow and wind from the southern Appalachians across the Carolinas and southern Virginia into Sunday.

Florida is facing extreme cold, gale and freeze warnings. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and portions of Virginia are also facing a gale warning along the coast. Portions of those states are also under a winter storm warning beginning Friday night or Saturday morning.

The mid-Atlantic states face a storm, heavy freezing spray and winter warnings along with a storm watch. The storm watch extends into Pennsylvania. New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire confront a small-craft advisory on the coast and a cold weather advisory inland.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts face a gale warning, and a heavy freezing spray warning is issued for Maine.

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What People Are Saying

NWS Meteorologist Scott Kleebauer, to Newsweek via phone on Friday: "The cyclone off of the east coast helps drive temperatures lower for the Florida peninsula.

"We are going to have winter weather be impactful in areas that normally don't see winter weather. With this cold push they are going to feel like it's back-to-back storms for some areas."

Kleebauer added that eastern Carolina and southeast Virginia could see the heaviest snow.

What Happens Next

Airline delays and cancellations are likely at hubs along the east coast, and ground travel disruptions are expected along portions of major interstates.

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