Valentine’s Day will see more snow, ice and rain across much of US
A person walks through the snow on the Capitol campus, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Olympia, Wash. Winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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(Reuters) — Snow, ice and teeth-chattering temperatures will sock much of the United States on Valentine’s Day through early next week, with more than 100 million Americans under winter-related watches and warnings coast to coast.
The shivering weather is blasting from Portland, Oregon, across the U.S. Plains, dipping through Texas to New Orleans and as far east as Washington, D.C., the National Weather Service said.
Credit: Dan Hummel via Storyful
“It’s winter’s cold across much of the country,” said Marc Chenard, a forecaster with the service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Amarillo, in the Texas panhandle, will see a high temperature of only a blistering cold 2 degrees Fahrenheit, Chenard said, breaking the record of 12 degrees set in 1895. Lubbock, Texas will hit a high of only 9 degrees. Little Rock, Arkansas will hit only 16 degrees.
“That’s 40 to 50 degrees below average,” Chenard said.
Credit: Frank Vitale via Storyful
The bitter cold was already gripping much of the Plains, and on Thursday icy roads contributed to a massive multi-vehicle pileup in Fort Worth, Texas, where six people died and dozens were taken to a hospital.
Chicago will see lows of zero degrees Fahrenheit for the holiday. New Orleans will hit the low 20s by Tuesday’s Mardi Gras, a celebration the city is famous for and already hobbled by the COVID pandemic.
Portland, Oregon will get an inch of snow – while not seeming to be much to Midwesterners, it is as much as the city typically gets in a year, the NWS reported.
People play outdoors in Lake Oswego, Ore., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. The tree fell during an ice and snowstorm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupted travel across the Pacific Northwest region. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus) 
People walk by a collapsed tree in Lake Oswego, Ore., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. The tree fell during an ice and snowstorm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupted travel across the Pacific Northwest region. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus) 
People walk by a collapsed tree in Lake Oswego, Ore., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. The tree fell during an ice and snowstorm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupted travel across the Pacific Northwest region. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus) 
Traffic makes its way down a snow-covered stretch of East Front Street near downtown Port Angeles, Wash., on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. Snow blanketed most areas of the North Olympic Peninsula beginning on Friday night, continuing into Saturday. (Keith Thorpe/The Peninsula Daily News via AP) 
People walk by a collapsed tree in Lake Oswego, Ore., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. The tree fell during an ice and snowstorm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupted travel across the Pacific Northwest region. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus) 
Skip Cundiff plays good neighbor as he clears sidewalks around a housing area in Walla Walla, Wash., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP) 
Samuel Braun, 6, let his dad, Dave, take the brunt of the frozen powder while sledding in the snowfall Friday Feb. 12, 2021 in Walla Walla, Wash. Both came up smiling. (Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP) 
A bird picks seeds out of the snow in a feeder tray, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in Olympia, Wash. Some areas of the Puget Sound area got more than a foot of snow Saturday, and winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) 
A bird eats seeds out of snow-covered feeder, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in Olympia, Wash. Some areas of the Puget Sound area got more than a foot of snow Saturday, and winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) 
Aidin Weber, 18, of Clarkston, Wash., leaps over his younger brother, David, 13, as he sleds down a hill at Sunset Park in Lewiston, Idaho, on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. (Pete Caster/Lewiston Tribune via AP) 
The Winged Victory Monument, which honors those who served in World War I, is shown as snow falls, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) 
A person jogs with a dog as snow falls, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, next to security fencing at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) 
The Winged Victory Monument, which honors those who served in World War I, is shown near the Washington State, U.S., and POW-MIA flags as snow falls, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Winter weather is expected throughout the Seattle region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) 
A couple walks through the snow, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Winter weather is expected throughout the Puget Sound region through the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Meanwhile, as much a foot of snow with high wind-driven drifts will clobber parts of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. Dallas will see 4 inches, while sleet and freezing rain will sock Houston, creating dangerous road conditions, Chenard said.
One of the few warm spots for Valentine’s Day will be Florida, which will see temperatures in the 80s in Miami and in the 70s in Central Florida’s Orlando and Daytona Beach, Chenard said.
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