Winter storm begins: Millions face catastrophic ice and heavy snow

What we’re covering

• Widespread threat: Two-thirds of the US population is facing down a monster winter storm and extreme cold. The storm’s snow and ice will stretch over 2,000 miles from Texas to New England as it tracks east through the weekend.

• Catastrophic ice storm: Crippling ice accumulations will weigh down and drop power lines and trees in the most serious icing zones in the South. Hundreds of thousands could lose power, some for days.

• Travel nightmare: Thousands of flights have already been canceled ahead of the storm. Travel will be difficult to impossible on roads across the storm’s footprint.

• Record cold: More than half of all Americans will experience subzero wind chills in the next week. The extreme cold will lock snow and ice in place and leave those without power shivering for days.

How much snow is coming in the next three days

The winter storm is expected to produce large amounts of snow across more than a dozen states.

How much ice is coming in the next three days

A light glaze of ice makes travel hazardous. A quarter inch or more can cause tree and power line damage. A half-inch or more can cause even more destruction.

Sunday is now worst day for flight cancellations in the past year

From CNN’s Pete Muntean and Deidre McPhillips

Sunday has become the worst day for US flight cancellations in the past year, overtaking a record previously set by Saturday’s numbers.

As it stands at 9 p.m. ET Friday, more than 4,200 flights originally scheduled for Sunday have been canceled, according to FlightAware. Cancellations continue to climb, with more than 1,000 added in the past hour and a half.

More than 2,900 Saturday flights have been canceled so far, the flight tracking site says.

FlightAware data shows that the previous worst day in the past year was November 9, when airlines canceled more than 1,900 flights during the peak of the US government shutdown.

Dallas residents should plan to hunker down for days, official says

Dallas residents should have adequate food, medicine and supplies that can carry them through four or five days, said Kevin Oden, the city’s director of emergency management and crisis response.

Folks should be prepared to “hunker down, maybe until as late as Wednesday, and hold out while the weather goes through,” he told CNN.

The city has been in “response mode” since Friday afternoon, he said, working to treat roads, prepare shelters and implement other plans that have been months in the making.

“We definitely don’t believe that being on the roadways, particularly over these next 48 to 72 hours, is any place for folks to be,” Oden said.

And the risks will continue even after the precipitation has stopped. Once temperatures rise above freezing, there may be issues with pipes and water main breaks.

Oden encouraged residents to check on neighbors while emergency management crews work to keep the city safe.

“The biggest thing we’re watching is all of our critical infrastructure,” he said. “We want to make sure that the power is working, people can move freely on the streets, hospitals are operating, water is flowing, all of that. If we start to see impacts to any of those systems, we’ve got contingencies in place to hopefully get those systems back online and serve our residents.”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/web-wssi-wpc-winter-storm-pm-012326.png?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill

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