Monster snowstorm to blanket more than half of United States

NEW YORK - A massive winter storm hit the US Rockies and Plains on Friday then punched east, with snow set to assault a 1,609-kilometer corridor through the weekend, creating transportation "havoc" in the middle of the country.

The system started as rain from Mexico and turned to snow as it met icy air. Up to 45 centimeters of snow were expected in the Sangre de Cristo mountains south of Denver, according to the National Weather Service.

As the storm heads east, up to 41 cm of snow were likely in western Missouri and St. Louis. Areas to the east could get about 15 cm with ice developing in Kansas, and Arkansas, and up to 10 cm of snow in Washington, DC, before the system heads out to sea late on Sunday, AccuWeather said.

"The storm is expected to create havoc over the central part of the country, then extend eastward into the Mid-Atlantic states," said Randy Adkins, an AccuWeather meteorologist.

The FlightAware.com flight tracking website reported 1,431 flight cancellations on Friday and 12,465 delays, with problems at snow-hit airports like Denver causing knock-on effects around the country.

While the storm will spare the heavily populated Northeast, it likely will disrupt air and auto travel from Kansas City to Indianapolis, and will bring the heaviest snowfall so far this winter to Cincinnati and the Ohio River Valley, said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker.

Although the Kansas City area is expected to get up to 6 inches of snow, it should be over by the time the Kansas City Chiefs begin their National Football League playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday afternoon. 

St. Louis emergency management officials are bracing for auto travel disruptions and possible power outages, but based on current forecasts, are not expecting to be overwhelmed, spokesperson Tracy Panus said.

"This is not the first storm we’ve had in the St. Louis area," Panus, who is with the St. Louis County Police Department of Emergency Management, said by telephone.

As the system moves eastward, it will hand off to a second coastal storm on Sunday that will bring 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) of snow to the Washington, DC, area before it moves off the coast that night, Walker said.

"There could be a period of ice that we’re concerned about across portions of central North Carolina and back into the mountains," he added.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Economic cost of Harvey, Irma estimated at $290B

WASHINGTON - The combined economic cost of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could reach $290 billion, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the US gross domestic product, US forecaster AccuWeather said in a report Sunday.

"We believe the damage estimate from Irma to be about $100 billion, among the costliest hurricanes of all time," said the firm's CEO and founder Joel Myers.

Harvey, which battered Texas and parts of Louisiana in late August, will be "the costliest weather disaster in US history at $190 billion or one full percentage point of GDP" which stands at $19 trillion.

The report said it arrived at the figure by calculating disruptions to business, increased unemployment rates for significant periods of time, damage to transport and infrastructure, crop loss including a 25 percent drop of orange crop, increased costs of fuels including gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, household damages and loss of valuable documentation.

Only a fraction of the losses would be covered by insurance, said Myers.

Irma struck the Florida Keys archipelago earlier Sunday and headed north towards the city of Tampa on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.

Harvey made landfall in Texas in late August, causing severe damage to property and paralyzing the country's fourth-largest city, Houston, with major flooding.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Odds of U.S. White Christmas vary by region

The probability of a white Christmas -- with snow at least an inch deep on Christmas Day -- is low for many areas of the United States, forecasters say.

While northern New England, the Upper Midwest, the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain West have a 75 percent of a white Christmas, New York City, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia have less than a 25 percent chance, AccuWeather.com Wednesday.

Regional differences in normal December snowfall and temperatures are both critical factors in what areas can expect a white Christmas, AccuWeather said.

"It tends to stay colder across the northern tier during the day and night, so when snow falls, it's less likely to melt," AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

Further south, temperatures play a more important part, forecasters said.

"By the time Christmas comes around, there is a pronounced temperature difference from north to south [across the Midwest]," AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Andrews said. "The 'refrigeration' needed to keep the snow from melting is less reliable in Chicago compared to somewhere like International Falls, Minn."

source: upi.com