(Bloomberg) — A huge winter storm brought devastating flooding to Kentucky and Tennessee, grounded hundreds of flights across the US and knocked out power to more than half a million customers in the South.
The weekend storm also brought a coating of snow and ice throughout the Northeastern US into Ontario and Quebec in Canada.
And it’s just the first round of wintry weather that will sweep the continent this week.
Heavy rains forced the closure of more than 300 roads across Kentucky on Sunday, with Governor Andy Beshear describing the flooding as “historic” in a post on social media platform X. He has also requested an emergency declaration from President Donald Trump and said shelters have opened for residents who’ve had to evacuate.
Parts of Kentucky got up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain overnight, and the damage was just being assessed as the sun rose across the region, said Gregg Gallina, a forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. In addition to the heavy rain, the storm also brought severe thunderstorms across the South and snow and ice to the Ohio Valley and Northeast.
“We’ve had every single type of weather you can have and its not even done across the Northeast yet,” Gallina said.
As of 8:30 a.m. in New York, more than 550 flights into and around the US were canceled with Boston, Toronto and Montreal the hardest hit airports, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. Meanwhile, nearly 543,000 customers are without power from Virginia to Louisiana, PowerOutage.us said.
Winter storm warnings cover Upstate New York and New England, while flood warnings and watches are posted across the Ohio Valley and tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings are following a squall line across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, the National Weather Service said. Wind advisories stretch from New York to Florida.
In Canada, winter storm warnings have been posted across Ontario and Quebec, including Toronto and Montreal, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Gallina said the storm is the same one that brought heavy rain to Southern California last week. It then crossed the US gathering energy from frigid temperatures to its north and milder air to its south. When the storm finally exits the eastern US, it will pull in more Arctic air, sending temperatures plunging across the central US and Canada early this week.
Meanwhile, a second storm is getting started and may reach the Northeast later in the week. Washington and Boston could pick up snow, but it will probably miss New York City, forecasts indicate.
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