A large winter storm that is expected to bring strong winds and heavy snow to a dozen states arrived in the Great Plains on Saturday, forcing officials to close the Kansas City airport in Missouri and an 18-mile section of Interstate 70 in Kansas.
Kansas City International Airport was “temporarily closed” starting at about 3 p.m. local time as crews worked to clear the runways of snow, said Denise Christensen, a dispatcher for the airport.
Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas declared a state of emergency in the state on Saturday afternoon, as officials braced for the storm to worsen.
The Kansas City region was under a blizzard warning until 3 a.m. on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which predicted that the area would be blanketed by nine to 14 inches of snow and face wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour.
“Travel could be very difficult to impossible,” the service said in an update.
The airport’s closure delayed a Kansas City Chiefs team flight to Denver, said Brad Gee, a spokesman for the Chiefs. The Chiefs, who were scheduled to play the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, were still on the runway on Saturday evening, Mr. Gee said.
The storm was also wreaking havoc on the state’s highways.
In a video filmed near a rolled-over semi on Interstate 135 in Kansas and posted on social media, Trooper Ben Gardner of the Kansas Highway Patrol said that the highway was “very, very slick” and that “it’s not getting any better.”
“Get off the roads,” he said. “Don’t be on ’em because it’s not good and it might result in something really bad happening. Stay home.”
An icy, 18-mile section of Interstate 70 closed at about 3 p.m. because of crashes and spinoffs said Kim Stich, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation. Earlier in the day, another three-mile section of the highway closed but then reopened.
The storm was forecast to intensify in Kansas and then move east along Interstate 70, bringing heavy snow and blistering cold along a band in the Midwest and then to the Mid-Atlantic.
Some places may get their heaviest snowfall in a decade or more, forecasters said early on Saturday as widespread winter storm warnings took effect.
The Weather Service issued a smattering of winter watches, advisories and warnings for regions, stretching from eastern Colorado to New Jersey.
“It’s going to be a very impactful storm affecting a pretty huge area of the country,” said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
As the storm moves on, arctic air is predicted to settle in its wake, as some of the most frigid temperatures of the season are expected to linger for days.
The governors of Missouri and Indiana put the National Guard in their states on standby, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia declared a state of emergency and urged people to avoid traveling on Sunday.
In Kansas, plows would be out throughout Saturday night, according to the state’s Transportation Department.
The Prediction Center said that some of the most extreme conditions are likely in places to the north of and running along the Interstate 70 corridor, which passes through St. Louis and Indianapolis.
“The focus of the heaviest snow will be to the south of Chicago,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Moderate lake-effect snow could also hit the Upper Great Lakes and Lake Erie through Sunday morning, forecasters said.
The Prediction Center also warned of “significant icing potential” in the mid-South this weekend. Sleet and freezing rain could wreak havoc from eastern Kansas and the Ozarks, stretching east to the Tennessee and lower Ohio Valleys.
“That rain will freeze on contact and turn to glazing — that’s what sticks to the trees, power lines, roads, cars, car windows, everything,” Mr. Bann said.
The southern Appalachian Mountains are also at risk of icing on Sunday and Sunday night.
There was an enhanced risk, the second level out of five, that severe thunderstorms on Sunday could form in parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley and bring lightning, wind gusts, hail and tornadoes.
From Sunday into Monday, the storm is on track to cross the Appalachians and push into the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Washington, D.C., area, along with western Maryland, Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
By daybreak on Monday, snow is expected to fall across the Mid-Atlantic region and continue through the day.
The storm is arriving at a time when the country is poised to experience what the Weather Service called a “significant arctic outbreak.”
Temperatures are expected to plummet to below average in areas east of the Rocky Mountains, reaching as far south as the Gulf Coast and Florida, with the frigid weather lasting into mid-January.
Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.
