Bitter cold. Life-threatening wind chills. Lake-enhanced snowfall.
These are the terms the National Weather Service used Wednesday to describe a trifecta of wintry hazards caused by a storm that is sweeping from the Pacific Northwest to the Plains and should reach the Northeast later this week.
“What better way to kick off the official start of astronomical winter than with numerous winter weather hazards impacting a majority of the nation,” the National Weather Service said Wednesday in a message from its prediction center.
The NWS said Oregon and Washington state will see freezing rain late Thursday.