A dangerously frigid arctic air mass gripped a vast expanse of the United States on Thursday as a looming winter storm of historic proportions threatened to upend travel plans for millions of Americans.
The cyclone could spawn snowfalls of a half inch (1.25 cm) per hour and howling winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) from the Upper Midwest to the interior Northeast, producing blizzard conditions and near-zero visibility, the weather service said. Combined with the arctic cold, wind-chill factors as low as 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius) were forecast in the High Plains, the northern Rockies and Great Basin, the NWS said.
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