By Aya Elamroussi, Travis Caldwell, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Leinz Vales, Tori B. Powell and Matt Meyer, CNN
From CNN's Rebekah Riess
Interstate 90 is now closed from Rapid City to Sioux Falls in South Dakota due to sustained high winds causing “blizzard-like conditions,” according to the South Dakota Department of Transportation.
“In addition to blizzard-like conditions, many stuck and stranded vehicles are blocking lanes of traffic. Officials will continually assess when I-90 can be reopened safely,” SDDOT said.
From CNN’s Caroll Alvarado
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged Kentuckians to stay off the roads Thursday as the state is expected to get hit with severe winter weather.
“We are urging Kentuckians to stay off the roads starting Thursday afternoon. If you are an essential worker and must travel, please follow these safety tips and have a vehicle kit in your car,” Beshear said on Twitter.
During a press conference on Thursday, Beshear added that residents can expect the roads to be “treacherous.”
“You can have very little visibility and we can get to a point where the salt, even with all the extra stuff we do to it, won’t work to prevent ice, if we have certain conditions out there.” Beshear said. “So, everybody expects the roads to be treacherous tonight through tomorrow.”
Kentuckians across the state can expect 1 to 3 inches of snow, but it’s also the wind chills and wind gusts residents should be concerned about, Beshear said.
“The wind chills starting tonight and through Friday afternoon are going to be very dangerous,” Beshear said. “It’s going to be really cold. It’s not going to get above freezing until probably like Tuesday.”
In addition to staying off the roads, Beshear urged residents to check on senior citizens or loved ones who may not have adequate heating systems in their homes.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” Beshear said. “We’ve been through a lot in these last 3 years. We have lost 17,400 plus people in a pandemic, now 44 from flooding, 81 from tornado, I don’t want to lose one person due to this cold.”
The Kentucky National Guard has prepositioned resources and is ready to assist with rescues, if needed, Beshear said.
From CNN’s Hannah Sarisohn
A state of emergency for the city of Buffalo will go into effect at 7 a.m. ET on Friday, Mayor Byron Brown said Thursday during a news conference with emergency management officials.
According to Brown, conditions will deteriorate quickly on Friday.
“We will see a flash freeze in the morning followed by a rapid drop in temperature, a cold front, and the start of extremely challenging weather,” Brown said. “Strong and steady winds of up to 60 miles per hour are expected. Heavy lake-effect snow will develop in parts of the city with areas of blowing and drifting snow and white out conditions, and the potential for power outages.”
Brown also said residents should brace for lakeshore flooding.
“As Buffalo residents, we are used to winter weather and often take it in stride. But forecasters say this is not our typical storm. So please don’t expect 4 to 5 inches and be complaining about driving and plowing,” Brown said. “This is not going to be a typical storm; in fact, this could be a life-threatening storm.”
Brown encouraged residents to finish holiday and grocery shopping before the end of the day Thursday.
“This is a very significant storm, a different kind of storm than last time,” Public Works Commissioner Nate Martin said. “Conditions themselves will be dangerous for all individuals. Please do not be on the roads if you don’t need to.”
Friday’s garbage and recycling collection is canceled, Martin said, as visibility will be extremely difficult.
Brown said there is great potential of downed trees and power lines throughout the storm.
David Bertola, a spokesperson for National Grid utility company, said about 2,800 crew members from across the country are expected to deploy to Buffalo and western New York.
“This weekend is our game day and we’re ready,” Bertola said.
From CNN's Michelle Watson
The United States Coast Guard is warning migrant vessels attempting to enter the US during the nationwide cold front that it's "unpredictable" and dangerous to do so, according to a Thursday news release from the agency.
"Winter weather is unpredictable in the Florida Straits," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Cobb, Coast Guard 7th District, according to the release. "It can result in these unsafe, rustic vessels capsizing and people losing their lives."
The US Coast Guard 7th District Southeast "repatriated 67 Cubans to Cuba, Thursday, following interdictions off Florida's coast," it said, adding that the migrants were found Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, one boat of migrants was found around 9:40 a.m. local time, "about 20 miles north of Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas," the release said, while another boat of migrants were found, "about 50 miles south of Marathon."
On Tuesday, some migrants were found in "capsized migrant vessel … about 40 miles south of Boot Key," the release said, while another boat of migrants were found, "about 35 miles south of Marquesas Key."
A third boat was found Tuesday evening, "about 20 miles south of Key West," the release said.
Form CNN's David Williams
Cody Chitwood experienced blowing snow, limited visibility and frigid temperatures in El Dorado, Kansas, which is about 35 miles northeast of Wichita.
He told CNN that at 11:13 a.m. CT, the temperature was -4 degrees with a wind chill of -32.
“The snow has ended, so it's not nearly that bad. The wind is kicking up snow, but the visibility isn't an issue at the moment,” he said.
He shot the video below at about 9:10 a.m. CT (10:10 a.m. ET) on Thursday.
Chitwood is at work, about 40 miles from home, so he hopes that conditions are OK in a few hours when he gets off.
“Once home, I'm staying unless something comes up,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Wichita, snow can be seen blowing down a street in the downtown area.
A major winter storm is unleashing record-breaking cold temperatures in what the National Weather Service is calling a “once in a generation type event.” President Joe Biden has cautioned Americans to take the severe weather system seriously and to listen to warnings from local officials.
If you're just catching up now, here are some of the storm’s latest developments:
Travel trouble: Officials in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado alerted drivers to road closures and severe driving conditions Thursday morning as piling snow and dropping temperatures wreaked havoc on roadways. And according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware, more than 1,900 flights have been canceled and more than 4,500 have been delayed across the US so far.
Closures: Whiteout conditions in western South Dakota have closed Interstate 90 for an undetermined amount of time. Meanwhile in Illinois, some government offices and facilities are closed Thursday due to travel warnings and “hazardous road conditions." And in Buffalo, New York, public schools will be closed Friday due to the severe weather.
Record-breaking cold: At least two all-time record lows were set overnight from the Arctic blast, and more than a dozen record-low temperatures were either tied or broken on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm, which will stick around for the weekend, is also set to become the coldest Christmas in parts of the Plains, Midwest and Central Florida.
From CNN's Paul P. Murphy
The sheriff's office in Pennington County, South Dakota — which includes Rapid City — said even though much of the snow has moved out of the region, visibility remains "terrible."
Photos from Box Elder, South Dakota, shows just how much blowing snow is causing low visibility.
Officials said they do not think they'll be able to reopen Interstate 90 any time soon and warned residents against using side roads.
From CNN's Mike Saenz and Michelle Watson
The coldest Christmas to hit central Florida since 1983 is coming this weekend, according to CNN predictions.
Much of northern Florida is under a wind chill advisory, while central Florida is under a freeze watch and hard freeze watch, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Florida Power & Light, one of the state's largest energy providers, told customers to prepare for the wintery weather conditions.
"Extreme temperatures have a direct impact on the amount of energy you use to heat your home. Avoid changing your thermostat by more than 2 degrees at a time," the energy company said in a tweet Thursday morning.
More than 110 million people coast-to-coast were under winter-weather alerts for snow or icy conditions Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
And more than 90 million people were under wind-chill alerts from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and from Washington state to Florida, with some temperatures dropping to "life-threatening" levels, the Weather Prediction Service said.
The storm is expected to become a “bomb cyclone” Thursday evening into Friday, reaching the pressure equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane as it moves into the Great Lakes.
Here are some scenes from the storm as it makes the nation shiver and wreaks havoc on holiday travel.
See more photos here.
