A plow clears snow in Michigan on Monday.
Photo: Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette/AP Photo
Some 180 million Americans are bracing for impact as the threat of a severe winter storm looms across large swaths of the country from Texas to Massachusetts. As the weekend draws near, the final path of the storm remains uncertain: Models are predicting anywhere from minimal precipitation to close to a foot of snow in New York City.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service warned the storm system will bring heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Rockies and the Great Plains beginning on Friday, moving toward the East Coast and potentially up through New England on Monday. The agency advised that the impacts of ice and snow will be prolonged due to plummeting temperatures from yet another arctic cold front. Currently, winter storm watches stretch from parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolinas up through Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia, with more states likely to follow.
Guidance for the Major Winter Storm shifted north a little overnight, further expanding the areas forecast to be impacted Friday through this weekend. Here are the latest Key Messages. pic.twitter.com/ljRYn7zyyR
— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) January 21, 2026
The NWS’s office in Washington, D.C., placed the New York City region under a “high winter storm threat” from Saturday afternoon into Sunday evening, warning residents of major delays, closures, and “threats to life and property from heavy snow” with the possibility of as much as eight inches in certain areas. “Now is the time to plan to minimize impact on you and your family,” one warning read.
While plenty of uncertainty remains about the extent of the storm, New York City Emergency Management is urging New Yorkers to remain vigilant and “prepare for extreme cold weather this week,” as snow is expected with “at least a few inches possible” and the chance of higher totals based on the storm’s path.
The always indispensable New York Metro Weather X account writes that conditions are ripe for the city to potentially see its most significant snowfall in a decade, but it also makes it clear that the storm just missing the city remains a possibility and that at this point no forecaster knows for certain.
It is still too early to speculate about snowfall totals for this weekends storm in NYC. Anyone posting snowfall totals at this lead time – especially given the uncertainty with this storm in particular – is doing so for clicks & views. Know your trusted weather sources!
— New York Metro Weather (@nymetrowx) January 21, 2026
In January 2016, a massive blizzard struck much of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic; Central Park recorded 27.5 inches of snow, the largest snowfall in modern New York City history. It just edged out the previous record holder of 26.9 inches during the 2006 blizzard, and between those were the two 20-inch blizzards of 2010.
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