Americans living from North Carolina to Massachusetts are being told to prepare for the first major winter storm of 2024, which will hit by the first weekend of January.
Colder air moving down from Canada will collide with low pressure systems moving up from the Gulf, and combine into a total nightmare by Friday night, according to AccuWeather. Between Saturday and Sunday, there is a significant potential for snow and ice in a region stretching from just south of Asheville, North Carolina, through to Washington D.C.
But an area from northern northwestern North Carolina through beyond Boston is at risk of more than 6 inches of snow by the time the weekend is out. The system will spread inland as far west as Cincinnati, Ohio, maybe slightly further, and over to Buffalo, New York, where more than 60 people died in 2022 from extremely cold weather.
People from Virginia to Massachusetts should prepare for a major snowstorm this weekend. @shalhoupwx pic.twitter.com/FtFTktaFsp
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) January 2, 2024
A lake-effect snow shower is forecast throughout the northern most reaches off the eastern U.S., the National Weather Service concurred. Those living downwind of the Great Lakes should be extra prepared for this eventuality. (RELATED: Extreme Weather Caught On Dashcam Video Goes Viral)
Millions of people are at-risk from this weather event, and it could be the biggest witnessed along the I-95 corridor in the last two winters, AccuWeather said in another post. Now is the time to go and stock up on food, candles, blankets, water, and if you can be trusted with a paraffin stove, then get one. But don’t get any type of stand-alone stove if you’re accident-prone, because you could set your house on fire.