Brutally cold temps covering half the US and paralyzing lake-effect snow are on tap as Thanksgiving travelers try to get home

By Holly Yan, Gene Norman, Taylor Ward and Taylor Galgano, CNN

(CNN) — While ferocious snowfall threatens to trap residents in parts of the Great Lakes region, millions of holiday travelers face bitter Arctic air that will soon blast half of the entire country.

Temperatures will plunge 15 to 25 degrees across much of the eastern US over the next few days, from Minnesota all the way down to Texas.

And frigid winds over the near-record warm Great Lakes will usher in the first major lake-effect snow event of the season.

More than 6 million people under winter weather alerts could see 6 to 12 inches of snow by this weekend. The wintry blast could dump up to 5 feet of snow in places like Buffalo and Watertown, New York.

“Expect dangerous travel & near whiteout conditions” Friday in northern parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the local National Weather Service office in Gaylord warned.

Holiday travelers could be stranded for days in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. “Heavy lake-effect snow is likely to cause travel disruptions through Monday,” the NWS Weather Prediction Center said.

“A prolonged lake effect snow event will bury some areas east of both Lakes Erie and Ontario with several feet of snow today through early next week,” the NWS office in Buffalo said.

“There will be localized areas that will be paralyzed from the lake snow.”

The lake-effect snow that pummelled areas east of the Great Lakes throughout Friday left more than 2 feet of snow in some areas along Lake Erie.

Girard, Pennsylvania, recorded 25.7 inches; Conneaut, Ohio, saw 23 inches; and Erie, Pennsylvania, received 21 inches of snow.

The wind pattern responsible for the heavy snow shows no signs of changing through the weekend and some areas may end up with 4 to 6 feet of snow by Monday.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday for 11 counties including Erie County, where Buffalo is located, due to the threat of lake-effect snow, she announced on X.

The New York State Thruway Authority reported snow blanketing Interstate 90 along Lake Erie on Friday afternoon as plow crews worked to clear the roads.

The heavy snow prompted county and highway officials to close portions of several roadways Friday, including parts of I-90 in New York and Pennsylvania and I-86 in Pennsylvania.

The Jefferson County, New York, sheriff’s office, near Lake Ontario, which is under a state of emergency, issued a “no unnecessary travel” advisory urging travelers to stay off the roads.

“Please stay home and stay safe,” the sheriff’s office announced on Facebook.

Tom Laird, 47, of Erie, Pennsylvania, is accustomed to snow in the winter but says the severity of Friday’s storm caught him by surprise.

“It’s been insane … nobody expected this,” he told CNN. “This kinda caught us a little off guard with how massive it’s been.”

A drive to his local grocery store for supplies, which normally takes eight minutes, took Laird about 35 minutes, he said.

During his drive, he witnessed multiple cars stalled on the side of the road and saw state troopers pulling people out.

Laird said he didn’t have any issues because his car has winter tires and four-wheel drive. The person he hired to plow the snow from his driveway and yard stopped by four times, but it was hard to tell.

“It looks like he hasn’t even been here,” said Laird, who added his yard was covered in snow again.

The combination of fierce winds and mind-numbing temperatures could be deadly in some parts of the central US.

“At the peak of the Arctic outbreak, minimum wind chills should fall below zero for much of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest,” the Weather Prediction Center said.

“Wind chills across much of the Dakotas and Minnesota will be below -15 degrees with some portions of North Dakota as cold as -30 to -40 degrees. This poses an increased risk of hypothermia and frostbite on exposed skin. Have a winter survival kit if you must travel.”

For many, this wintry blast will bring the coldest temperatures since mid-February. About 70% of the country will see temperatures below freezing for the next few days.

Freeze watches are in effect for about 15 million people in states from Texas to South Carolina, with freezing temperatures expected Saturday morning.

Travel will be extremely difficult or impossible with immense snow on roads and very poor visibility. The National Weather Service urged those in the hardest-hit areas to delay travel plans, if possible.

“Travel disruptions are likely, especially on I-90 between Cleveland and Buffalo and I-81 north of Syracuse,” the Weather Prediction Center warned.

Travel headaches had already begun Friday afternoon in Cattaraugus County in western New York, where traffic conditions on Route 219 were “very, very poor, with many cars and trucks off the road,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference. Cattaraugus County is also under a state of emergency.

“It is not a good time to be driving in those areas of our region,” Poloncarz said.

But aside from the Great Lakes area, no major weather-related travel nightmares are expected this weekend.

CNN’s Jillian Sykes and Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.

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