A powerful storm sweeping across the country toward the Mid-Atlantic inundated a vast area with a wintry mix of sleet, snow and freezing rain that the Weather Prediction Center warned would cause “significant disruption” to daily life and travel on Sunday and Monday travel could lead.

The storm covered roads across Kansas with ice on Saturday. The storm’s impact is expected to extend more than 1,500 miles across a dozen states, from eastern Colorado to Maryland and Delaware.

Approximately 50 million people will be affected by winter weather advisories, watches and warnings as the storm progresses.

Power outages, fallen trees and traffic delays at airports and on roads are likely.

In the most extreme situations, whiteouts caused by blizzards or blizzards could cause roads to become impassable and strand motorists, the National Weather Service said.

Several states in the weather system’s area of ​​influence – including Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia – have declared states of emergency, and Maryland has declared a state of preparedness. The declarations are intended to improve states’ responses to the storm in several ways.

Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana planned to activate the National Guard to help with highway rescue operations, said Jane Jankowski, his deputy chief of staff.

The storm rages as arctic air from Canada enters the United States.

As the storm system pushes offshore Monday, “brutally cold” air will settle behind it, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.

On Tuesday morning, many places will see roads covered in snow and ice, including Washington, DC, where a procession is planned as part of Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

The heaviest snowfall in a decade is expected in some places

Nearly four million people across much of Kansas and Missouri were under a blizzard warning early Sunday that was expected to last until 3 a.m. Monday. The heaviest snowfall in a decade was predicted for some places.

Meteorologists warned of wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour and snow depths of between 20 and 30 centimeters. Blizzard warnings are issued when heavy snow and winds of 35 miles per hour are forecast for three hours or longer.

Dozens of highway accidents were reported as a low pressure system swept across Kansas and Missouri overnight.

“It hasn’t snowed yet, but we have ice and it’s forming, which is still causing difficulties,” Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said in a video on social media. “Stay home, especially tomorrow. The snow is coming and you don’t want to be out here because it’s brutal.”

In northern Kansas, a 100-mile stretch of Interstate 70 was closed overnight, authorities said. The plows would be out through the night, said Kim Stich, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

In Kansas City, Kansas, Brock Graham, the manager of the Chateau Avalon Hotel Spa and d’Nile Lounge, a boutique hotel off Interstate 70 on the western edge of the city, said most of the hotel’s employees had been sent home because of the crisis Weekend.

The hotel was only expecting a few guests after a wave of cancellations. Those who stayed at work would not go home until Monday, Mr Graham added.

“It will be difficult or almost impossible to drive,” Graham said, adding that shelves at area grocery stores were mostly empty. “I think everyone in the area is preparing.”

The storm is expected to bring snow to the Mid-Atlantic

On Sunday, the system moved from Missouri and the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley.

Heavy snowfall is expected in a long area between northeast Missouri and the central Appalachians Saturday through Sunday and Monday, with snowfall amounts ranging from 8 to 14 inches. Southern Illinois and Indiana are expected to receive several inches of sleet.

In Ohio, where the storm was expected to spread to hilly areas in the southeastern part of the state, thousands of miles of roads had been treated with salt by Saturday, said Matt Bruning, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The state expects to deploy more than 1,000 snowplows at the peak of the storm, he said. Clear, sunny weather helped Ohio prepare on Saturday.

“Now it’s just waiting for Mother Nature to bring whatever she can,” Mr. Bruning said.

South of the heavy snow zone, a band of freezing rain will fall from central Kansas into the central Appalachians through Monday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

“This rain freezes on contact and turns into glass – which sticks to the trees, power lines, roads, cars, car windows, everything,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Prediction Center.

After crossing the central Appalachians, most likely early Monday morning, the system will move into the Mid-Atlantic.

By daybreak on Monday, snow will be falling across much of the Mid-Atlantic – including Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., and is expected to continue throughout the day.

10 to 20 inches of snow is expected to fall in Baltimore and 5 to 8 inches in Washington, DC.

If the system shifts slightly north or south, totals “could rise or fall quite significantly in either direction,” said Kevin Rodriguez, a meteorologist with the Weather Service.

Snow will have stopped in the Mid-Atlantic by Tuesday, but cold, gusty weather is forecast throughout the week, with afternoon highs in the 30s in the capital and overnight lows in the 20s.

“The snow that falls on the ground won’t go anywhere because it will be so cold,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “There’s been snow on the ground all week.”

Yan Zhuang contributed to reporting.