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Millions of Americans across the central United States are bracing for a major storm system set to pummel the region over the next two days, according to the National Weather Service.
As many as 74 million people across the nation are expected to face some type of severe weather ranging from blizzard conditions in some areas to heavy rain and flooding in others as the major winter storm moves through the central part of the country.
In Colorado, the storm underwent bombogenesis — also known as a bomb cyclone — according to The Denver Post, a term used when a storm drops 24 millibars, or units of atmospheric pressure, in 24 hours or less, according to Weather.com.
Denver is under a blizzard warning through midnight and could receive as much as a foot of snow.
Almost 1,000 flights out of Denver International Airport were canceled ahead of the storm, according to the Post. FlightAware, a flight tracking site, listed more than 1,400 delays and more than 1,500 cancellations across the country as of 12:45 p.m. ET.
Between Wednesday and Friday, the storm will cause heavy rain, severe thunderstorms, isolated flooding, heavy snow, blizzard conditions and high winds across large swaths of the central U.S., according to the NWS.
The majority of the snow from the storm was falling in the Rockies on Wednesday morning, but blizzard conditions were expected from northeast Colorado to western South Dakota by the afternoon.
As many as 10 million people from the Rockies to the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest are under winter weather alerts
Blizzard warnings were also issued for parts of eastern Wyoming, southeastern Montana, western Nebraska, western and central South Dakota, central and eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, according to Weather.com.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas recorded gusts of wind between 75 mph and 78 mph early Wednesday. Parts of Western Texas through the Plains could see wind gusts of up to 60 mph on Wednesday, which could cause downed trees and power lines.
Farther north, parts of the Great Lakes region down into the Plains were at risk of flooding. Farther south in Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, as much as 4 inches of rain could fall through Friday.
The extreme weather also threatened northern Louisiana through western Tennessee with tornadoes. Last week, more than 20 people were killed after tornadoes ripped through eastern Alabama, according to officials.
