- Airlines canceled more than 1,400 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Wednesday.
- "Consider staying off the roads this morning if at all possible," Weather Service in Chicago said.
- Near-blizzard conditions are possible in Indiana.
A massive winter storm began its assault on the central U.S. on Wednesday, a sprawling system that promised to deliver a messy brew of snow and freezing rain to tens of millions from the Rockies to the Northeast.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, governors urged residents to stay off roads, and schools closed campuses because of the storm.
Major metro areas such as Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit were all in the path of the storm. About 100 million Americans were under some form of weather alert as of Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights scheduled for Wednesday, the tracking service FlightAware.com showed.
FLIGHT WOES:Thousands of US flights canceled Wednesday, Thursday amid massive Winter Storm Landon
Car travel was also affected: “Motorists with trips that take them through the zone of ice and snow in the middle of the nation should be prepared for substantial delays, dangerous travel and road closures,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan saw freezing rain, sleet and snow. In Chicago, where snow was falling, the Weather Service tweeted, "Consider staying off the roads this morning if at all possible."
In central Missouri, officials shut down part of Interstate 70.
The Weather Channel named the system Winter Storm Landon.
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More than a foot of snow was forecast to fall from Missouri to Maine by the time the storm winds down this week, AccuWeather said.
In the Detroit area, shoppers hauled bags of groceries to stock their kitchens before up to 16 inches of snow was expected to blanket the region Wednesday and Thursday in what the National Weather Service called a "long-duration event."
At the Southgate Meijer store, Mike Cavallero, of Taylor, Michigan, loaded up on more groceries than usual.
"It's about half and half because of the snowstorm," he said of his purchases, which included more cookies, pop and potato chips.
If 16 inches of snow falls in Detroit, this would be the city's fifth-largest snowstorm on record, the Weather Service said.
Indianapolis is expected to see 6-12 inches of snow during the two-day period, and areas north of the city could see 12-18 inches, Weather Service meteorologist Ted Funk said
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"At that time, we are looking at high snowfall rates,” Funk said. “We are looking at winds blowing 20 to 30 mph. It could cause, at times, here and north of here near-blizzard conditions."
To the south of where the snow falls, a corridor of heavy ice accumulation is likely from Texas through the Ohio River Valley, the Weather Service warned. Memphis, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky, were under an ice storm warning Wednesday.
"Travel will be extremely hazardous and could be impossible at times," the Weather Service in Louisville said.
Power outages, tree damage and major interstate closures are possible as a widespread icing threat looms, AccuWeather said. There could be ice accretions upward of 0.25 of an inch, increasing the risk of downed power lines.
The storm extended as far south as Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott defended the state’s readiness nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze buckled its power grid in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. The forecast did not call for the same prolonged and frigid temperatures as in the storm in February 2021.
No large-scale power outages were reported by early afternoon Wednesday in Texas or elsewhere, according to poweroutage.us.
WHAT IS A NOR'EASTER? Storms can batter East Coast with snow, impact millions of people
The disruptive storm moved across the central U.S. on Groundhog Day, the same day the famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. The storm came on the heels of a vicious nor’easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.
Contributing: The Associated Press; The Indianapolis Star; The Detroit Free Press
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