This weekend’s monster winter storm has been dubbed ‘the worst in a lifetime’ by meteorologists across the US.
But it has now emerged that one stretch of the country is particularly at risk and could be uninhabitable for days.
Meteorologist Ryan Hall, known as ‘The Internet’s Weather Man,’ told the Daily Mail that he is most concerned about a 500-mile path from Nashville, Tennessee to Shreveport, Louisiana.
‘This is where I think that we could see a very significant amount of ice, an amount of ice that we haven’t seen in this area since 1994, and in some cases, ever, as far as we know since records began,’ Hall said.
He warned that the Delta region in Southeast Arkansas and western and northern Mississippi face an ice storm so extreme that it could knock out heat and electricity for up to two weeks in certain areas.
Hall added that this stretch of the US, including areas like Oxford, Greenville, and Tupelo, Mississippi, should also brace for an extreme cold snap in the wake of the weekend storm. This could last for days and send temperatures well below freezing.
‘If you don’t have power in Mississippi and Louisiana, and you’re not used to cold temperatures, and now you don’t have power, and it’s 10 degrees every morning, that’s a big problem,’ the meteorologist said.
‘We’ve got to make sure people know that they’ve got to find alternative ways to heat their house. And if they don’t have that, then staying in their house is not a safe, viable option. We’ve got to really help people find shelters.’
He added that the monstrous nationwide storm will likely be bigger the 1993 superstorm that killed more than 270 people across 13 states.
On Friday, January 23, the National Weather Service expanded the scope of their winter storm warnings (seen in pink) to cover more than two dozen states
Ryan Hall (Pictured) is a digital meteorologist and host of the Ryan Hall, Y’all channel on YouTube
‘It’s going to be 2,000 miles wide, and it’s going to impact over 200 million people,’ Hall told the Daily Mail.
‘The superstorm of 1993 was much more compact than that. It definitely impacted a lot of people, but nowhere near as many as this, and it wasn’t anywhere near 2,000 miles wide.’
The National Weather Service (NWS) has used words such as ‘crippling’ and ‘potentially historic’ to describe the massive storm barreling across the country – and meteorologists have almost unanimously agreed.
Until now, the start of 2026 had been mild. But the return of a polar vortex over the US has brought frigid air down from Canada and Greenland, leading forecasters to swiftly shift their weather predictions for the rest of the month.
That freezing cold air has now met with moisture surging from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico), creating a powerful low-pressure system that will deliver snow, ice, freezing rain, and extreme cold across 30 states.
While temperatures in Florida are forecast to be in the 70s and 80s this weekend, certain parts of the Midwest and Northern Plains are expected to be over 100 degrees colder, with temperatures in Minnesota falling under 20 degrees below zero.
More than ten states have declared a state of emergency, with one to two feet of snow and potentially over an inch of ice expected between Friday and Monday.
Frigid temperatures as low as 50 below zero and 24 inches of snow, sleet, and ice are expected to hammer much of the country over the weekend
Snow started to fall in Ohio on Friday morning as residents brace for the weekend superstorm
AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter, has warned that hundreds of thousands of Americans could be left without electricity and heat as a devastating ice storm breaks power lines across the South and Southeast, from Texas to Virginia.
Professional storm chaser Jaden Pappenheim said: ‘Ice of this magnitude would snap trees, bring down power lines, and lead to widespread power outages that could last an extended period.’
‘Unfortunately, this is not the type of storm that simply goes away the next day.’
Former NOAA meteorologist Ryan Maue explained how each quarter-inch of ice adds 500 pounds of weight to the span of a utility pole’s electrical wire.
‘If you’re younger than 40 years old, then you may be experiencing the worst winter weather of your lifetime depending upon where you are over the next 10-14 days,’ Maue said in a social media post.
While winter storms do hit the South, the cold weather typically doesn’t last long, with snow and ice melting quickly.
This makes Hall’s prediction of extremely low temperatures through the following week potentially deadly for thousands in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Ben McMinn, the chief of Mississippi’s Desoto County Emergency Services, said many areas are already preparing for a prolonged cold snap and urged residents to help protect each other during the storm.
McMinn said anyone in the path of the storm should focus on the ‘Three P’s’ – check on vulnerable people such as elderly neighbors and relatives, find a safe place for pets that is out of the cold and prevent pipes from freezing and bursting.
A person rides a bicycle through blowing snow in Evanston, Illinois, on January 14
Governors throughout the South and Southeast have declared a state of emergency as snow and ice are expected to cause power outages and threaten lives
Hall noted that early forecasts for the storm showing a much smaller system developing and only delivering a few inches of snow to most of the country were based on less detailed prediction models that people should not have taken literally.
The YouTube star added that since this storm will affect around 200 million Americans, it received a great deal more attention online than smaller blizzards. This resulted in some people sharing unreliable data and misleading information.
As more data landed and models were updated, predictions for a superstorm became sharper and more accurate.
‘I’m really hoping that the forecast is wrong. I would love nothing more than that. But if it’s not, then we’ve got a big problem,’ Hall warned.
