Blankets of snow and sheets of ice. Blustery winds and temperatures plunging to lows that can burst pipes. Across a vast swath of the country on Thursday, officials and meteorologists warned people to be ready for any of it.
The forecasts this week have been ominous, but blurred by uncertainty. Meteorologists expect a barrage of harsh winter weather in the eastern two-thirds of the country in the next few days, but exactly which areas will face the brunt of it has been a moving target.
Ocie Fulford certainly wasn’t going to test his luck. He walked out of a Kroger supermarket in Atlanta on Wednesday evening pushing a cart stuffed with canned goods, bread and peanut butter — enough, he hoped, to keep his two teenage sons fed during whatever comes.
“I’ve also got a delivery of more supplies coming to the home later,” Mr. Fulford, 51, said, “and I went to the Home Depot to get a five-gallon gas canister I filled up.”
He had been through awful winter weather in Atlanta before, notably a notorious 2014 storm — remembered as the “snowpocalypse” — that brought the area to a grinding halt. He was fortunate then, he said, because he did not lose electricity at his home. He refused to tempt fate this time — in fact, he’d already bought a generator.
The slippery forecast, which has seemed to shift course with every update, has been enough of a jolt to remind Southerners, in particular, of how uniquely anxiety-inducing a burst of frigid winter weather can be.
The storm is threatening places that are painfully familiar with other kinds of severe weather — hurricanes and tropical storms, flash floods, tornadoes. But snow, ice, sleet and bitter cold? Many residents have experienced only just enough of that to know how much of a mess it can cause.
Rough winter weather presents unfamiliar problems for people on the South, like driving on slick roads or making sure their plumbing can withstand freezing temperatures.
On a much larger scale, winter storms test infrastructure and the wherewithal of state and local governments, school districts and businesses that may have limited experience or resources to cope with the cold, compared with their counterparts in the Northeast and the Midwest.
“It might happen once or twice a season,” Renée Pratt, the executive director of Metropolitan Social Services in Nashville, said in an interview about snow and ice in the city. “But when it does, it’s major.”
The storm system, which is moving west to east across the country, is predicted to intensify on Friday, producing snow in New Mexico and Colorado before it moving on to Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Freezing rain, sleet and snow are likely on Saturday in Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee, while snow moves across the Midwest.
The storm is expected to push into Georgia and the Carolinas by Saturday evening and reach the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast on Sunday, when it could intensify further. In its wake, forecasters anticipate brutal cold across the eastern United States into next week.
That much is clear. But pinning down just what each individual community should expect has been tricky. “The models keep changing, and you don’t know if we’re going to get a bunch of snow or if we’re going to be stuck under a crazy ice storm that’s going to knock our power out,” Kelly Reed, 46, said as she loaded her car at a supermarket in Nashville.
Inside the store, the supply of bread and canned goods was rapidly depleting, and so was the hot cocoa mix. Ms. Reed, who works for an AI company, had checked with ChatGPT as a starting point for what to stock up on: peanut butter, canned meats and several days’ worth of food and supplies for her pets.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia sought to reassure residents in a video posted on social media Wednesday, even as he warned them to prepare. “We’ll get through this as we have before — carefully and together,” he said.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott mobilized equipment to prepare roads for ice and, told the Texas National Guard to be ready to pick up stranded motorists.
Several governors in the South declared states of emergency. One was Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who reminded residents that “winter weather can change quickly and create hazardous conditions with little notice.”
Past winter storms in the region have caused frustrating disruptions — slushy roadways, for instance, in cities with a modest fleet of plows — and inflicted considerable pain.
In Texas, the new storm could bring low temperatures similar to those during a 2021 storm that effectively knocked out the state’s electrical grid and left millions of people without electricity in subfreezing conditions. State officials said that 246 people died during that crisis.
An R.E.I. store in Raleigh, N.C., was filled on Wednesday evening with Southerners searching for parkas, puffers and other apparel that people there do not usually need, even in the dead of winter. The racks of Patagonia sweaters were empty. Most of the snow boots were sold out.
Henry Clark, 19, had come looking for down-filled mittens, but found none. He kept searching for cold-weather gear that would not overwhelm his college-student budget — especially snow boots.
“This is the first time in my life where I’m like, ‘OK, there might actually be a lot of snow or ice on the ground,’” said Mr. Clark, who grew up in Charlotte, N.C., and is a first-year student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He spotted some boots on sale for about $70. Maybe those would do, and he would improvise the rest.
“I’m just going to wear two pairs of pants, and hopefully move on with my life,” he said.
Judson Jones contributed reporting.
Rick Rojas is the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the South.
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