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Boston and Worcester Public Schools will be closed on Friday because of deteriorating winter weather conditions, both school districts said on Twitter.
The two school districts are the largest in Massachusetts.
“@BostonSchools buildings will be closed on Friday, February 4 to keep everyone safe,” the Boston public school district tweeted out Thursday afternoon.
Worcester School tweeted a similar message Friday evening.
A mix of freezing rain and sleet is expected to hit the state.
Follow the path of the storm here
More than 140,000 customers have lost power in Tennessee as a result of the winter storm, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA).
As the weather system moves eastward, heavy rain is turning into freezing rain, and ice accumulations have caused 141,650 power outages in the state.
Along the Mississippi River, TEMA says rainfall has turned into freezing rain.
“An ice storm warning in effect until midnight for most of West Tennessee. Ice storm warning also in effect until 1 a.m. Friday for counties in the northwest corner of Middle Tennessee, to include Houston, Humphreys, Montgomery, and Stewart,” the release continued.
TEMA predicts power outages and travel concerns will persist across Tennessee into Friday.
Airlines canceled more than 5,000 US flights Thursday as a winter storm stretched from Texas towards the Northeast.
The cancellations reported by the aviation tracking site FlightAware included more than three-quarters of flights at Dallas Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines, and about 70% at Dallas-Fort Worth, home to American Airlines.
Southwest told CNN it is “monitoring the storm and making adjustments as necessary.”
American said it, as well as other carriers, are allowing passengers to rebook disrupted flights.
More than 1,500 US flights have already been canceled for Friday – many of them in the Northeast where the storm was headed.
With a dynamic storm system stretching from the Southwest to the Northeast, it’s wild to see the atmosphere change dramatically every 50 to 80 miles.
If you were traveling north to south from Missouri to Mississippi this afternoon, you’d encounter almost every type of weather event.
At the start, it’s cold enough for all snow. Then you’d enter the snow/sleet line to the sleet/freezing rain area, until you get to all freezing rain in southern Illinois into western Tennessee.
Continuing to move south into Mississippi, the environment is warm enough for rain but conditions deteriorate.
Moving just three counties in Mississippi, from freezing rain east into the warmer air, there’s more than just rain you could encounter — there’s a tornado threat.
Tornado warnings have already been issued for several Mississippi counties as a tornado watch continues into the evening eastward. With just a few counties dividing the boundary, this event will be monitored hour-by-hour.
We’re still in this for another 24 hours.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ordered all state offices to switch to teleworking, according to a press release posted on the governor’s website.
The National Weather Service for Little Rock has asked residents to stay off roads and bridges due to the icy conditions expected. As of 10 a.m. CT, the NWS said that 2.5 inches of sleet had fallen in North Little Rock.
There are at least 263,000 customers without power as a strong winter storm pushes across the US, according to Poweroutage.us.
Nearly half of those power outages are in Tennessee alone, which is reporting about 124,000 currently without power.
These states are seeing the largest impact from power outages:
New York and New Jersey have over 2,000 outages each, while Virginia and New Mexico are seeing about 1,500 and Indiana, Louisiana and Pennsylvania all have over 1,000 outages.
UPS has suspended “some operations” at the UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky, the main hub for all air freight, a company spokesperson told CNN.
“With significant ice accumulation expected at our main air hub in Louisville, we are suspending some operations on Thurs., Feb. 3,” UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer told CNN. ”[UPS Worldport] employees should check with their management teams about reporting to work.”
Mayer did not expand further on how much of the operations at their hub, located at the Louisville International Airport, were suspended.
The Worldport is the “largest fully automated package handling facility in the world,” according to UPS, and it “serves more than 300 inbound and outbound flights daily, processing about 2 million packages per day.”
A tornado watch is in effect until 6 p.m. CT for portions of western and central Alabama and southeast Mississippi, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
The watch includes three million people in cities such as Gulfport in Mississippi and Mobile, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham in Alabama.
A few tornadoes — some of which could be intense — and damaging thunderstorm wind gusts up to 70 mph are possible, according to the SPC. The severe weather threat is associated with the same storm system that is producing widespread winter weather over much of the eastern US.
Kentucky’s governor is urging residents to stay off roadways as winter weather rolls through the commonwealth.
“The number one message is stay off the roadways, if possible, as rain, snow, and ice continue through this evening and then through Friday morning,” Gov. Andy Beshear said during a briefing Thursday afternoon.
Beshear said while the storm “no longer appears” to be as strong as past storms, parts of the state are still expected to get significant amounts of snow, ice and flooding.
Travel is expected to be impacted through Friday morning, according to Beshear.
“As a reminder, I’ve already declared a state of emergency so we could preposition our assists, especially to help people that might be stranded,” he said. “We also have signed a price-gouging order that prevents people from raising prices and taking advantage of people during this time.”
Beshear also said state office buildings will remain closed on Friday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the state’s power grid has “plenty of power available at this time.”
The state is currently “dealing with one of the most significant icing events that we’ve had in the state of Texas in at least several decades,” he said during a Thursday briefing.
Roughly 70,000 customers are without power across Texas, PowerOutage.US showed on their website.
Abbott explained that “the most probable cause of a power outage right now… is either because of heavy winds affecting lines or more likely, because of an icing conditions.”
“There are more than 10,000 linemen already working for power transmission companies to assist with power lines that are not working. And, in addition to that, almost 2,000 more linemen are coming in from outside the state of Texas,” he added.
The winter storm has over 100 million people are under winter alerts in parts of 25 states, where snow and ice are causing power outages.
These states are seeing the largest impact from power outages:
Elsewhere, Kentucky and Indiana are experiencing over 3,000 outages; Ohio and Oklahoma have over 2,000; and New Mexico and New Jersey are seeing more than 1,000 outages each.
Millions are under weather alerts in the central, southern and eastern US due to a massive winter storm.
Here’s the latest forecast for select cities:
Dallas/Fort Worth
St. Louis
Indianapolis
Memphis
Cincinnati
Buffalo
Boston
And this is how much snow has fallen so far:
Close to half the US population faces risk for snow, ice, dangerous cold, flooding and even possible tornadoes, with over 25 states in the eastern half of the country under weather alerts.
The storm has already produced nearly two feet of snow in parts of the Rockies and 12-15 inches in several states in the Midwest. It is snowing right now from the Southwest to New England and additional heavy snow will fall today into tomorrow.
Ice storm warnings include over 6 million people, including Memphis and Louisville. Over a half an inch of ice accumulation will likely bring down trees and power lines. Texas and Arkansas are also seeing significant ice, including around Dallas and Austin. Hundreds of thousands will likely be without power by later today and tonight as the ice storm peaks.
Dangerous cold covers the middle of the country with wind chill alerts from the US-Canadian border to the US-Mexican border. Wind chills as cold as 50 degrees below zero are expected in the Dakotas, with single-digit wind chills as far south as Houston.
South of the Arctic front, heavy rain is likely to continue. Flood watches are in effect from Alabama to Pennsylvania, covering more than 13 million people.
Parts of the Southeast are under the threat for severe thunderstorms. The threat covers much of Alabama into Louisiana, where a few tornadoes may develop later today.
There are at least 210,000 customers without power as a strong winter storm pushes across a massive swath of the US, according to Poweroutage.us.
Texas and Tennessee each have over 70,000 customers without power and Arkansas has nearly 25,000 in the dark, the website shows.
The winter storm has over 100 million people are under winter alerts in parts of 25 states, where snow and ice are causing power outages.
These states are seeing the largest impact from power outages:
Elsewhere, Kentucky and Indiana are experiencing over 3,000 outages; Ohio and Oklahoma have over 2,000; and New Mexico and New Jersey are seeing more than 1,000 outages each.
A number of universities across the southern US and Texas closed down on Thursday as a winter storm makes its way across a wide swath of the United States.
The following universities have announced that they are closed today: Western Kentucky University, Missouri State University, Butler University, Texas Tech, Bowling Green State University, the University of Arkansas, Texas A&M, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Kentucky.
The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has reopened to air traffic after ice and snow shut down the runways there, according to an FAA website.
The airport had also been under a ground stop, according to the FAA website, but that is also no longer in effect.
Airport spokesperson Francisco Rodriguez confirmed that the airport is open but directed further comment on air traffic to the FAA.
The airport has reopened one runway at this time, an airport spokesperson said.
Power outages have affected more than 130,000 customers in the US so far as a huge storm brings snow, ice, sleet and rain to the central and eastern US.
In case a power outage lasts a few days, you should have the following on hand:
If you need to make a trip outside, keep it as brief as you can and layer up, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Check with your local emergency authorities to make sure it’s safe to drive or travel in the cold.
Generators can release poisonous carbon monoxide if you use them inside your home. If you’re using one, keep it outside about 20 feet away from your home, the CDC advises.
Depending on a generator’s power capacity, it can emit as much carbon monoxide as a few hundred idling cars. Even if you’ve lost electricity, you still need to disconnect your normal source of power by turning the main breaker or fuse off before plugging the generator into a household circuit, according to the CDC. Try to keep the generator dry and use heavy-duty extension cords to plug refrigerators or laptop chargers directly into the generator.
You should never use a gas stove or oven to heat your home, according to Ready.gov, the US government’s online disaster planning resource.
Avoid opening your fridge or freezer during the power outage to keep your food cold. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a fridge can keep food cold during an outage for about four hours, and a freezer will keep its temperature for about 48 hours.
Read more tips here and read helpful guidelines on generators from the National Weather Service in Memphis in the post below:
And review this in case you absolutely need to go out and get stuck:
A massive winter storm is bringing snow, ice, sleet and frigid temperatures to a large swath of the US today.
Here’s a look at where things stand this morning:
The areas around Memphis and Covington, Tennessee, have seen accumulations of about .5 to .75 inches of ice, according to the National Weather Service.
The service warns that the amount of ice could lead to coated roads, power outages and downed trees.
An ice storm warning was issued for the cities and surrounding areas.
The weather service added:
Arkansas residents should stay off the roads because “conditions will continue to go downhill through this afternoon,” according to the National Weather Service in Little Rock.
The northern part of the state has received six to seven inches of snow, according to the NWS.
The service tweeted out a map of roadways impacted by snow, slush and ice:
There are at least 130,000 customers without power as a strong winter storm pushes across a massive swath of the US, according to Poweroutage.us.
A massive winter storm has over 100 million people are under winter alerts in parts of 25 states, where snow and ice are causing power outages.
As it pertains to power outages, these states are seeing the largest impact of the storm:
Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey all have more than 2,000 outages each.
