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Winter storm brings heavy snow and ice to busy holiday travel weekend

A man cleans off his car of snow in Brooklyn after an overnight storm on Dec. 27, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A man cleans off his car of snow in Brooklyn after an overnight storm on Dec. 27, 2025 in New York City.

A powerful winter storm is bringing extreme weather to the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) says the system will intensify over the next few days and conditions are expected through Tuesday.

“Arctic air will descend into the Plains beginning Sunday followed by a potent winter storm across the upper Midwest to the Great Lakes Sunday night to Monday,” according to a bulletin from the NWS posted on Saturday.

Heavy snow and whiteout conditions are forecasted across parts of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, causing “treacherous travel,” the NWS said. More than a foot of snow could fall along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania are expected to receive lake-effect snow.

The storm has slammed the Northeast, dumping up to nearly 8 inches of snow on New York City and surrounding areas between Friday and Saturday. The weather snarled traffic along the I-95 corridor and disrupted air travel. Flight tracker, Flightaware.com, showed more than 1,000 delays across U.S. airports on Saturday evening. Nearly 1,000 flights were cancelled into, out of and within the U.S. as of Saturday evening.

The NWS is also warning of dangerous ice across parts of the Northeast, including ice accumulation of up to a quarter of an inch in eastern New York, parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Bitter wind chills as low as -35 degrees are expected in parts of North Dakota and up to -25 degrees in northern Minnesota.

Meanwhile, it will feel more like spring across parts of the South and into the Tennessee Valley, where temperatures could reach highs in the 70s for this time of year, according to forecasters.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Kristin Wright is an editor of NPR Newscasts airing during Morning Edition and throughout the morning. Based in Washington, D.C., Wright also contributes as a fill-in Newscast anchor.

Prior to her arrival to NPR in 2022, Wright spent 20 years as an anchor and reporter covering local news for NBC, ABC and FOX TV stations and affiliates in Washington, D.C.; Tampa, Fla.; Harrisburg, Pa., and Binghamton, N.Y. As a general assignment reporter, Wright covered everything from education and courts to crime and severe weather, and many other areas of interest impacting local communities.

On Capitol Hill, Wright served as a freelance correspondent at the Cox Washington Bureau. She was also a freelance anchor at WTOP-FM. Wright's first job in journalism was as a writer at the NBC affiliate in her hometown of Detroit.

In addition to her roles in journalism, Wright enjoyed her time as Director of Communications for The Arc of the United States, one of the country's largest disability rights advocacy organizations. Wright was invited to NBC News in New York to share best practices and ideas in covering issues impacting people with disabilities, their families and the support workforce.

Wright was recognized with an Emmy award for her reporting. She has also received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Associated Press. Wright holds a bachelor's degree in political science from University of Michigan, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily.

Wright, her husband and their two children live in Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C.

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