By Kathryn Prociv -
NBC News
More than 83 million people are under some kind of winter alert this Thursday, from coast to coast, from the Pacific Northwest to New England.
The first storm forecasters were monitoring was causing heavy snowfall across Tennessee, where 1 to 2-inch-per-hour snowfall would likely cause a difficult morning trip
along I-40,
including for Nashville.
Through Thursday, this area of snow is expected to move across Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, southern Ohio and the Appalachian Mountains.
Workers clear snow from the east front of the Capitol on January 4, 2022, in Washington, DC, the day after a severe snowstorm.Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images
By Thursday night, snow is forecast to be in full swing across the Mid-Atlantic and inland Northeast, affecting cities from Fredericksburg, Virginia, north to Washington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
eventually It runs along the I-95 corridor
from Philadelphia to New York and Boston.
The storm is expected to be strongest this Friday during the busiest hours.
By dawn on Friday, the snow is forecast to end for Washington and Philadelphia, but to continue to fall hard in New York, Hartford, Connecticut, Boston and
everything in between.
[A snowstorm hits the Southeast, leaving hundreds of thousands without power]
It's a fast-moving storm system, so all the snow will be off the New England coast by early afternoon.
On Thursday morning, forecasters were on the lookout for a narrow but very heavy band of snow that
could settle near or along the I-95 corridor
during Friday morning rush hour.
Snow totals of up to 8 inches will be possible where this snow band is established, with snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
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While the exact location of this snowfall is impossible to predict, meteorologists warned that it could be anywhere from New York City, south of New Jersey, or further east through Long Island, to Cape Cod and Boston. .
A different winter storm on Thursday also caused lake-effect snow to
cover parts of the Great Lakes
.
This Thursday morning, heavy snow was falling downwind onto the lakes, especially in the southern suburbs of Buffalo and New York.
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The snow will last through Thursday night and Friday morning before subsiding.
It is possible for 1 to 2 feet of snow to fall, and heavy snowfall, combined with wind gusts of up to 40 mph, will lead to white snow conditions and
make travel difficult or nearly impossible.
Forecasters also warned of heavy rain and snow in the mountains to the Pacific Northwest.
About 7 million people were under flood watch Thursday in parts of Washington and Oregon, including Seattle and Portland.
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Heavy rains and snow will persist in this region through Friday, with flooding watches due to high-flow rivers, streams and rivulets.
Until this Friday, in addition, amounts of rain of up to 5 inches and snow of up to 18 inches will be possible.
And behind the snow, come dangerously cold temperatures.
[Snowstorm in the east, tornadoes in the south and floods in the west: 2022 kicks off with extreme weather]
About 19 million people woke up Thursday to cold wind chill alerts, which spread from North Dakota to the Texas Panhandle.
In these areas, the wind chill is expected to be as low as 50 degrees Celsius,
which can cause frostbite in a matter of minutes.
Temperatures this Thursday morning were below freezing in the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, with a wind chill of 20 to 30 degrees below zero.
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In the Great Lakes,
temperatures were in the single digits
and wind chill was below zero.
The cold air will head east on Friday and will stay there until early next week.