'Snow To Be Measured In Feet, Not Inches' This Weekend, Meteorologist Warns

A man clears his sidewalk along South Park Avenue on December 28, 2022 in Buffalo, New York. The historic Winter Storm Elliott dumped up to four feet of snow on the area leaving thousands without power and thirty confirmed dead in the city of Buffalo and the surrounding suburbs. John Normile/Getty Images

Much of the U.S. is having a "white Thanksgiving" as huge areas of the country across the Northeast and Midwest is blanketed by snow.

Some states will have as much as 12 inches throughout Thursday and into Friday morning. According to a weather warning by the National Weather Service in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Americans will see "heavy snow to the region through tonight."

AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines told Newsweek that he expects "bad weather" to really hit "up to New England and Central North where there will be probably some snow, especially in higher terrain."

While he said that most of the country will look "OK" for travel, and over the weekend "most of the country should have relative quiet," the Great Lakes will suffer their famous snowdrift effect and "are going to be measuring snow in feet, not inches," specifically "those areas between Cleveland and Buffalo, and north of Syracuse, and the extreme western part of Michigan."

"In general, most of the country should have relatively quiet weather during the Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Kines said.

"In the southeast and Florida panhandle, there will be strong storms down there, but for the rest of the country, at least for traveling purposes, it's looking OK," he said.

"If you have to travel in those parts of the country with a lot of snow, you have to be careful," Hines warned. "The first snow of the season always seems to catch people off guard. They seem to forget that snow-covered roads can be slippery. It doesn't take them long to remember. Allow yourself some extra time."

"And for those people getting real heavy snow, in the Great Lakes, maybe it's better to just stay put," Kines added.

Fans of the NFL teams the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers may feel the full effect of that weather if their game goes ahead on Sunday night.

Bills coach Sean McDermott admitted during his Wednesday media engagement that snow impacts the team "from a preparation standpoint," but that the team has "been through it before," according to Sports Illustrated.

"We have some experience with it," McDermott said. "We can't control the weather, I think only He can control the weather. I know He can control the weather."

"I think it's really just about how we respond to it," McDermott continued. "Our staff does a phenomenal job, the people that have shown up [to shovel out the stadium] for the years that I've been here, at minimum and beyond, my time here of shoveling the stadium out."

"I think that'll happen again, if need be," he added. "We'll get ready to play a football game."

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