Tracking the East Coast's Massive Snowstorm

That swirling cover of white up there is the first blizzard of 2016, captured by satellite as it barreled across the central United States, toward the East Coast.

The “potentially crippling” storm is expected to bring powerful winds and up to two feet of snow to parts of the Mid-Atlantic this weekend, which could result in flooding in coastal regions, the U.S. National Weather Service warned. The storm has the makings of the “Big One” and so far appears “textbook,” according to the winter-weather expert who literally wrote the textbook on northeast snowstorms.

As of Thursday morning, about 73 million people—or roughly one in every four Americans—were covered by some kind of blizzard or winter-storm advisory, according to weather.com. Local, state, and federal officials have been scrambling to organize their responses to the blizzard as residents swarm grocery stores to stock up on food and water.

We’ll be tracking the snowstorm here throughout the weekend at various levels: NASA/NOAA GOES Project