January 2016 United States blizzard

From January 22 to 24, 2016, a deadly, historic and crippling blizzard, unofficially referred to as Winter Storm Jonas by the Weather Channel and other media, or more commonly the Blizzard of 2016 and Snowzilla, produced up to 3 ft (91 cm) of snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. A weather system, evolving from a shortwave trough that formed in the Pacific Northwest on January 19, consolidated into a defined low-pressure area on January 21 over Texas. Meteorologists indicated that a resultant storm could produce more than 2 ft (61 cm) of snow across a wide swath of the Mid-Atlantic region and could "paralyze the eastern third of the nation", and regarded it as a "potentially historic blizzard". Winter weather expert Paul Kocin described the blizzard as "kind of a top-10 snowstorm". On January 20–22, the governors of eleven states and the mayor of Washington, D ., declared a state of emergency in anticipation of significant snowfall and blizzard conditions. Approximately 103 million people were affected by the storm, with 33 million people placed under blizzard warnings. More than 13,000 flights were cancelled in relation to the storm, with effects rippling internationally. Thousands of National Guardsmen were placed on standby, and states deployed millions of gallons of brine and thousands of tons of road salt to lessen the storm's effect on roadways. A travel ban was instituted for New York City and Newark, New Jersey, for January 23–24. Seven states observed snowfall in excess of 30 in (76 cm), with accumulations peaking at 42 in (110 cm) in Glengary, West Virginia. Ice- and snow-covered roads led to hundreds of incidents across the affected region, several of which resulted in deaths and injuries. At least 55 people were killed in storm-related incidents: twelve in Virginia; nine in Pennsylvania; six each in New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina; four in South Carolina; three each in Maryland and Washington, D .; and one each in Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Total economic losses are estimated between $500 million and $3 billion. The storm ranked as a Category 5 "extreme" event for the Northeast on the Regional Snowfall Index, and a Category 4 event for the Southeast. It was the first winter storm to rank as a Category 5 winter storm since the 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard.