Winter storm is forming off the US East Coast

A powerful winter storm is forming off the US East Coast, with meteorologists warning it could bring blizzard conditions, destructive winds and dangerous cold to millions this weekend. As of Friday morning, meteorologists expect the storm, known as a bomb cyclone, to form off the Southeast coast near Georgia and South Carolina early Saturday, before rapidly intensifying as it tracks north along the coast through Sunday. Blizzard conditions are forecast across multiple states, including the Carolinas, Virginia and Massachusetts, with heavy snow and whiteout conditions likely during the storm's peak.

Snowfall totals are expected to range from 1 to 3 inches in Washington, DC, 2 to 4 inches in Philadelphia, more than 4 inches in New York City, and potentially over a foot in eastern North Carolina and coastal Virginia. Coastal cities from Georgia to Maine may experience wind gusts up to 50mph, while parts of the Outer Banks of North Carolina could see hurricane-force winds exceeding 80mph. To understand the storm’s intensity, it’s helpful to look at atmospheric pressure. Pressure is measured in millibars, with lower numbers indicating a stronger storm; normal sea-level pressure is about 1,013 millibars.

Bomb cyclones form when pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, and a storm falling below 970 millibars signals an exceptionally intense system. Forecast models show this storm could deepen into that range as it rapidly intensifies offshore. Meteorologist Ryan Hall, known as 'The Internet's Weather Man,' said: 'This 968 millibar low-pressure center is similar to a Category 2 hurricane. It would be one of the greatest storms of all time that we all remember if it were just a little bit farther to the west.' Hall specifically pointed to the extreme wind gusts expected to accompany the weekend snowstorm, which could reach a devastating 100mph just off the coast in the Atlantic. 'Don't be out on the roads. Be prepared. It's literally going to be a blizzard,' he said in a YouTube video.

The storm is expected to rapidly intensify throughout the day, similar to a tropical storm turning into a hurricane. It'll move towards the Northeast quickly, passing just southeast of Cape Cod by Sunday morning and delivering some of the biggest snow totals of the weekend in Massachusetts. Some models of this bomb cyclone have suggested that the blizzard could form closer to land, potentially producing a historic hurricane-like winter storm capable of dumping as much as two feet of snow on the Carolinas and Virginia. While the East Coast is in the path of the heavy snow and wind this weekend, Hall warned that potentially deadly cold temperatures will descend over an even larger swath of the US, bringing historically low temperatures to parts of Florida.

In fact, the latest forecasts show it will get so cold this weekend that multiple cities along the Gulf of America could see flurries or even accumulating snow by Monday. 'You know how we have lake effect snow in the north? Well, it's so cold after the storm goes by that we're actually going to have Gulf effect snow in Florida. This is real. We might actually see snow in Tampa,' Hall predicted. 'We're going to see snow flurries potentially over here around Orlando, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, and some models are even showing the possibility for some very light snowflakes possible in the Bahamas, which would be the first time this has happened since the 70s.'

During and right after the storm this weekend, bitterly cold Arctic air will sweep across much of the central and eastern US, pushing temperatures up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below normal averages for late January. In Florida, lows could drop to the 20s or even teens in the northern part of the state, with wind chills makingit feel like it's in the single digits or below zero. By Sunday morning, the temperature could reach below freezing in Miami. The coldest spots will likely be in the northern parts of the storm's path, including the Midwest, Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, Upstate New York, and New England, where temperatures may fall below zero, especially in the Northeast. States facing the most extreme cold include Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia in the South, and Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the North.

Temperatures this low are extremely dangerous, especially in areas still recovering from Winter Storm Fern that are still experiencing lingering power outages. Homes without power could become life-threatening, facing increasingly high risks of hypothermia, frostbite, frozen pipes, and carbon monoxide poisoning from improper heating. As of Thursday, over 200,000 Americans in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee were still without power following Winter Storm Fern, according to PowerOutage.us.

Estimates continue to grow, but over 100 people are believed to have died following the massive snow and ice storms that swept across more than half the country last weekend. Hall added that the extreme cold is likely to stay locked in around the East Coast for at least the next week. 'There's no end in sight with the cold air. Things might get a little bit more normal closer to the Mississippi River Valley, but the below-average temperatures are likely to continue for the East Coast for the foreseeable future.This will eventually flip, but we're not seeing that anytime soon.'