Storm chaser Mike Boylan, founder of "Mike's Weather Page," warned Newsmax2 viewers Friday that a massive and potentially historic winter storm is poised to affect a wide swath of the United States this weekend, bringing crippling ice, heavy snow, and prolonged power failures across several regions.
Boylan told "National Update" the scale and severity of the system are unusual, particularly for areas that rarely experience major ice storms.
"There's places that haven't had an ice storm in over a dozen years," Boylan said. "Some are talking like it could be history in the making right now, catastrophic."
Boylan noted that the National Weather Service rarely uses language of that magnitude.
"They're calling it a catastrophic possibility with this ice storm," he said.
According to Boylan, updated forecasts show ice storm warnings extending through parts of the Southeast, including areas near Atlanta, Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina. Ice storm warnings typically indicate ice accumulations of at least half an inch, a threshold Boylan said can devastate infrastructure.
"I've been doing a lot of homework on this," he said. "You get a half an inch of water on a power line, it's like 500 pounds in between poles, and it just can't hold it."
Boylan explained that wind combined with heavy ice can cause power lines to swing and collide, leading to widespread loss of power. Trees also pose a major threat.
"The trees can't hold this much weight," he said. "That's what's making this unprecedented: The amount of large cities and the power line industry is going to be really stretched out."
He warned that people could be without electricity for days.
"I think we're going to see days and days of folks waiting on getting their power back," Boylan said.
Boylan also cautioned residents using generators to be aware of deadly risks.
"Carbon monoxide is the silent killer with these generators," he said. "You've got to have them at least 20 feet away from a carport or a window.
"You can't run them in your garages. It's very deadly."
As for preparation, Boylan urged people to treat the storm with the seriousness of a hurricane.
"There's a lot of hype right now. and I think there's a lot of denial," he said. "But we have past data to look at, and we have these models that have been very consistent with this half-inch to an inch of ice. It's the real deal."
He said the storm's effects stretch roughly 2,000 miles, from Texas to the Atlantic coast.
"You've got an ice threat, you've got a snow threat, and then a cold-weather threat is coming," Boylan said. "Up north, none of the snow is going to be melting for over a week."
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