Overview
- Blizzard and winter storm warnings from the National Weather Service stretch from Minnesota and Iowa to Michigan, New York and Maine, with whiteout conditions and officials urging people to avoid travel.
- Roads and airports are seeing major disruption, with parts of I‑35 closed, a ground stop at Detroit Metro, thousands of flight delays or cancellations, and tens of thousands of power outages led by Michigan.
- Dangerous cold follows the U.S. storm, including wind chills near minus 30°F in parts of the Upper Midwest and a prolonged lake‑effect setup that could drop 1 to 3 feet of snow in western New York.
- The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for snow and ice across parts of Scotland from 6 a.m. Jan. 1 to 11:59 p.m. Jan. 2, forecasting 10–20 cm widely and 30 cm or more on higher routes with gale‑driven drifting.
- UKHSA has activated amber cold‑health alerts for North East and North West England and yellow alerts elsewhere until Jan. 5, warning of increased risks to vulnerable people, while private ‘snow bomb’ maps for early January remain unconfirmed by officials.