By
Kathryn Prociv
and
Shannon Pettypiece
- NBC News
A huge snowstorm, the largest in the Mid-Atlantic region since 2019, is hitting the Southeast on Monday with forecasts of possible snow accumulations of up to a foot in parts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.
More than
29 million people are on alert
for severe weather from north Georgia to Cape Cod.
Snowpack was recorded overnight Sunday through Monday in parts of northern Alabama, northern Georgia, much of Tennessee and as far south as the Florida Panhandle.
By dawn, snow storms had already been reported in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Hundreds of thousands of users were without power
, including more than 344,000 in Virginia and 166,000 in North Carolina, according to the website PowerOutage.us, which collects data from public utilities in the United States.
While more than 85,000 customers in Georgia and more than 75,000 customers in South Carolina were without power as of noon Monday.
A resident shovels accumulated snow from a sidewalk in Annapolis, Maryland, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.Susan Walsh / AP
During the first half of the day on Monday, the snow was expected to be heavy at times, 1 to 4 inches per hour, causing accumulations on the roads.
As the storm heads out to sea, it will cover Cape Cod in snow, but no snowfall is expected in Boston at this time.
There will likely be a general
3- to 6-inch
swath
of snow from southern Virginia to eastern Long Island.
The highest standards,
6 to 12 inches are forecast for a region extending from central Virginia (Fredericksburg area) to southern New Jersey (Atlantic City).
A game of miles
There is still no certainty in the forecasts on how much snow they will register in parts of southern Pennsylvania, central and northern New Jersey and New York City, where a sharp cutoff of the storm is expected by noon.
Where this snow gradient ultimately falls will determine the total feet that Philadelphia and New York will have.
In other words,
in a distance of 20 miles, you can go from snow to just accumulated dust
.
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In addition to momentary large snowfalls, wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour are forecast in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, especially southern New Jersey, which could lead to blizzard conditions and power outages.
Significant delays in vehicle movement are likely to occur in the major transit hubs of Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
This dynamic snowstorm system also has a severe side.
The southern side of the storm in the Mid-Atlantic was producing
severe thunderstorms
Monday morning in the eastern Carolinas.
There was also a tornado watch Monday morning for cities like Myrtle Beach and Cape Hatteras, with storms with severe winds that can cause damage and isolated tornadoes across the eastern Carolinas.
There is also concern about the possibility of flash floods.
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The immense storm has a greater impact as it reaches the region after more spring temperatures were recorded over the weekend.
On Sunday, highs hit 70s in the southwest and 60s in the mid-Atlantic and northeast.
By Monday, they were expected between 20 and 30 degrees less.
These much colder temperatures could cause
wet roads to freeze
from Monday night through Tuesday morning.
Biden returns to the White House amid the storm
President Joe Biden returned to the White House on Monday after his vacation in Delaware amid severe winter weather that sent airport crews to clear the runway for Air Force One and forced the president's team through. snow covered streets.
Dozens of workers at Joint Base Andrews, near DC, and the Delaware airport, from which Biden was departing, rushed to clear the runway before the president's return Monday morning.
At one point, the ladder the president uses to exit the plane got stuck in the snow, preventing him and his staff from disembarking for about half an hour.
Biden shielded his face from the heavy snowfall until he was finally able to disembark.
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The weather conditions that prevented the president from making the trip from the airport to the White House by helicopter, and his caravan had to make its way on the road, which was in such bad conditions that tractors had sunk leaving hundreds of people stranded, reported NBC 4 in Washington.
Biden's caravan avoided its typical route and
went about 20 miles per hour for most of the trip
, slowing down in places as it passed cars that had gotten stuck in the snow.
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The storm caused the White House to cancel the daily press conference, which would have been the first since the end of the year holidays.
Federal offices in the DC region closed their doors while only employees designated as emergency personnel are required to report to work.
Biden spent eight days on vacation between his homes in Rehoboth and Wilmington, on what was his 31st trip to Delaware as president.