'Difficult or impossible travel': Winter storm wreaks havoc from Midwest to Northeast

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption New Year’s Eve forecast: Rain and snow for some areas While the country’s midsection will be tranquil, the outer fringes may be unsettled.

20 million people are under winter storm advisories.

Howling winds knocked out power to 100,000 customers in Ohio on Monday.

The fierce storm had already closed interstates and caused hundreds of crashes over the weekend.

A sprawling winter storm continued to deliver snow, ice and wind to portions of the Midwest and Northeast on Monday, wreaking havoc with holiday travelers from the Dakotas to Maine.

Strong wind gusts, blowing, drifting snow and icy conditions might make travel "difficult or impossible" in many areas, the Weather Channel said. In all, almost 20 million people were under winter storm advisories as of midafternoon Monday.

Howling winds that gusted to 60 mph knocked out power to over 100,000 customers in Ohio on Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us.

Heavy snow was the story in the Upper Midwest, where northern portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were expecting up to another foot of snow on Monday.

The fierce storm had already closed interstates and caused hundreds of crashes over the weekend in the north-central U.S., where conditions were especially bad in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota.

In the Northeast, a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain has developed from eastern upstate New York to parts of western, central and northern New England, the Weather Channel said.

A half-inch of ice or more is possible in some of the higher terrains of eastern New York, Vermont and western Massachusetts, where ice storm and winter storm warnings are currently in effect, the National Weather Service said. "Heavy snow is also expected across portions of Upstate New York to northern New England with accumulations of 6 to 8 plus inches possible," the weather service predicted.

Close up of ice accretion in Plainfield, Mass. Starting to hear tree limbs breaking in the woods. pic.twitter.com/d3rMwyqDd5 — Brian Holt Hawthorne (@brianhhawthorne) December 30, 2019

Midwestern hubs were also bracing for wintry weather: "Following all rain so far with this storm, cities like Chicago and Detroit will have a wave of snow move through Monday night into Tuesday," AccuWeather meteorologist Courtney Travis said. A coating to an inch or two of snow can whiten both of these cities.

Portions of the western U.S. will also see foul weather by Tuesday. The weather service said that a storm system moving toward the Pacific Northwest will bring widespread rain and mountain snows to much of the Northwest beginning Tuesday and lasting into the New Year.

Heavy snowfall, in excess of a foot, is possible in the highest terrain of the Washington Cascades and the northern Rockies.

Contributing: The Associated Press