Over 85 million Americans under cold weather alerts
Via ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Over 85 million Americans are under cold weather alerts over the next few days as arctic air plunges south across the country.
Portions of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have an extreme cold warning in effect as wind chills may reach as low as -50°F.
While it won’t be quite that cold farther south, wind chills may be dropping into the teens in cities like Houston and New Orleans early next week.
On Sunday, a developing coastal storm will bring the chance for moderate to heavy snow in several major cities.
Winter storm watches and warnings are in effect for more than 28 million people from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast on Sunday.
A wide swath of 4 to 8 inches of snowfall is expected from West Virginia to Maine.
New York City is currently forecast to pick up around 3 to 6 inches of snow on Sunday afternoon and into the evening, which could make this the biggest snowstorm in nearly three years for NYC.
As for timing, the bulk of it will be during the afternoon and evening on Sunday, with much of the I-95 corridor from Baltimore to Boston seeing the potential for slick roads.
As the cold snap progresses into the south, there will also be a winter weather potential in cities along the Gulf Coast that don’t often see frozen precipitation, including Houston and New Orleans.
Starting Monday night and continuing through Tuesday, there may be measurable snowfall in Houston, which could create numerous travel issues.
The last time Houston saw 1 inch of snow was back in 2021, but 2008 was the last time they picked up more than 1 inch of snow. New Orleans hasn’t recorded any measurable snow since 2009, and the city hasn’t topped 1 inch of snow since 1963.
It’s too early to determine if they’ll break that streak, but the chance for winter precipitation along the Gulf Coast is real enough that preparations need to be done this weekend ahead of the storm.
(PALM COAST, FL) — A toddler found wandering in the middle of a Florida street with a heavily soiled diaper ended up leading police to a home with extremely hazardous living conditions with the father passed out intoxicated in his bed, police say.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department in Florida responded to multiple emergency reports concerning a 2-year-old child “walking in the middle of the street in pajamas with a heavily soiled diaper,” according to a statement from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday.
Prior to the incident, witnesses say that they observed a child in the front yard of a nearby home and that they took the child to the residence where they found the child’s father, 44-year-old Ross Judy of Palm Coast, “passed out in his bed intoxicated,” police said.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Department responded to the home and, during their investigation, they found “dangerous tools and garbage in the interior and exterior of the home along with animal feces, filth, and an emaciated dog with an ear that was almost rotted off and fur missing from its body,” authorities said.
“The residence was in deplorable living conditions with several alcoholic beverage containers, bugs swimming in toilet water, and a sink piled high with several inches of cigarette ash to the point the sink was no longer visible,” according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department. “Pill bottles were scattered throughout a spare room and on top of living room shelves along with exposed razors and hypodermic needles, which were all accessible to the child.”
“No child should be living in deplorable conditions with an adult who obviously doesn’t care about their wellbeing,” said Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly in a written statement following the incident. “The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has no tolerance for anyone endangering children or animals. I am thankful to our residents who ‘saw something and said something’ so that our deputies could intervene.”
Judy was arrested and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm and abandon animal to die, sick, diseased or Infirm.
The suspect was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and is currently being held on a $4,000 bond, authorities said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families and Palm Coast Animal Control are also investigating this incident, and their investigation is currently ongoing.
(HOUSTON) — The FBI became aware on Tuesday of threats that were communicated involving two teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, plotting what the FBI called a “mass casualty attack” using pipe bombs and guns targeting Memorial High School in Harris County, Texas, according to law enforcement sources.
The threats were specific and deemed concerning enough that the FBI threat mitigation team moved quickly.
At around 2:45 p.m. (CST) the FBI called local law enforcement partners in Montgomery County, Harris County and Spring Branch Independent School District, who simultaneously worked to locate the girls.
By 3:15 p.m., just 30 minutes after the FBI call, both girls were located and in custody, law enforcement sources said.
“I got the call from the FBI agent that we worked very closely with, provided me with the information that they deemed credible, as did I, immediately located the student, found exactly where she was and went to the school, and that’s when we detained her and began our interview process,” Spring Branch ISDF Chief Larry Baimbridge told ABC News.
Baimbridge said in this case, the system worked.
“This is a perfect example of state and federal law enforcement working together. This is exactly how this information, I think, should be handled and I’m grateful to the FBI that got us information right away and we were able to act on it very quickly,” Baimbridge told ABC News.
“This planned attack wouldn’t have been stopped without exceptionally close partnerships between FBI Houston, Spring Branch ISD Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and Houston Police Department,” FBI Houston spokesman Connor Hagan said in a statement.
“We were able to take troubling information we received, conduct a rapid investigation, turn our results over to trusted local law enforcement partners, and ultimately save lives of innocent students,” Hagan said. “This type of situation is exactly why the FBI exists.”
The 16-year-old girl who is a student at Memorial High School is being held on a charge of making a terroristic threat, Baimbridge said.
The other student, a 15-year-old, is in custody in Montgomery County on an unrelated charge, according to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office statement.
No firearms, bombs or bomb making materials were immediately recovered in Harris County, though the investigation is ongoing in both Harris and Montgomery Counties.
Last week, the FBI worked with police in Mooresville, Indiana to disrupt a possible mass shooting plot against a high school there after learning of threats posted online.
Said Hagan: “We have officers from dozens of local agencies embedded with our agents working these types of threats every day on our Threat Mitigation Team and other task forces. FBI agents and task force officers, who are federally deputized, are absolutely essential to keeping our communities safe.”
An ABC News graphic shows the weather forecast on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — About 265 million Americans, or nearly 80% of the population, are under cold weather alerts on Tuesday, as dangerous temperatures are felt in at least 43 states.
About 45 million Americans in the South are under winter storm alerts as the largest winter storm in decades slams the Gulf states today from Texas to Florida and up through the Carolina coast.
That storm is bringing the first-ever blizzard warning issued for Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles and Lafayette, Louisiana, with observed visibility down to a quarter-mile and wind gusts to 35 mph.
More than 12 million Americans are also under red flag warnings in southern California, with about 3 million tagged with a “particularly dangerous situation” as high winds and desperately dry conditions hold over the already reeling communities.
Extreme cold from coast to coast
Only five of the lower 48 states are not under cold weather alerts Tuesday morning — Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Every other state is either completely shrouded in cold alerts or partially affected.
Record lows were recorded on Monday in several cities, including Colorado Springs, Colorado, were the temperature dropped to 14 degrees below zero. Rawlins, Wyoming, hit 23 degrees below; Alliance, Nebraska, hit 22 degrees below; and Borger, Texas, tied its record low of 1 degree.
Temperatures early Tuesday are below freezing along the Gulf Coast and down to 20 below zero in the north — and those are just the actual temperatures. With wind chills, it feels near 40 degrees below zero in Fargo, North Dakota, and like 18 degrees in Houston, Texas.
Rare record-low temps are possible in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Salina, Kansas. Even this afternoon, wind chills won’t go above 15 degrees below zero in Chicago, Illinois.
On Wednesday morning, the coldest wind chill temps will reach the Northeast where wind chills near zero will hit New York City and D.C. and go below zero in Boston. Farther south in the Great Smokey Mountains, Asheville, NC will feel like -2 on Wednesday morning.
Record lows are possible on Wednesday morning in places like Corpus Christi, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pensacola along the Gulf Coast and Cleveland and Akron in Ohio.
In the Midwest, many of these cold alerts are in effect through Tuesday morning only. In the South and East, alerts are extended through Wednesday or Thursday depending on the location.
Historic sourthern snow storm
The late 1800s saw a major snow storm along the Gulf Coast, but most of those records are not recognized by the National Weather Service, as it was before accurate reporting of snowfall was set up for these areas.
However, reports of 20 inches in Houston and 8 inches in New Orleans means this storm won’t break those historical numbers, but that was also right around the time electricity was being introduced to Southern cities — so this will likely be the most impactful storm of our modern era, and historic within the last century.
Debilitating travel conditions are expected to be widespread and power outages will be possible — which is dangerous in the life-threatening cold which could also burst pipes.
Local officials are warning residents to be prepared in case of power outage and in some communities there are suggestions to stay home and not travel if they don’t have to.
A first-ever blizzard warning has been issued for Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles, LA and Lafayette, LA with observed visibility down to a quarter-mile and wind gusts to 35 mph. (h/t Wnek)
Already in central Texas more than an inch has fallen in Gonzales and 1 inches has been reported in Taylor. These numbers will be updating all morning as reports come in.
Radar is showing widespread snow from Austin to near Corpus Christi, which will likely see sleet, to Houston to nearly all of Louisiana and into Mississippi and Alabama this morning.
