Winter storm threatens entire country

A winter storm is wreaking havoc across the country. The storm, announced by the National Weather Service, has been active since last weekend and is expected extend throughout the week with strong gusts of wind of more than 40 miles per hour as well as heavy snowfalls. It will affect much of the central United States, especially eastern Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. In addition, the NWS warned that some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska could accumulate up to 2 feet of snow while the rest of the states could experience frost and sleet.

In addition, the National Weather Service put all of these states on special alert, along with Colorado for blizzards. The warning is triggered when winds are greater than 35 miles per hour and come with heavy snowfall.

"It's a fairly vigorous storm system. This one is a little larger than your average winter storm," said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. The organization, in turn, alerted citizens that the region would suffer "significant, widespread weather hazards from flash flooding to blizzard conditions to the central U.S."

General hazards

Weather conditions have already begun to affect nearly 150 million people. As of early Tuesday morning, a total of 4,739 flights to or from the U.S. were delayed, while another 191 were cancelled outright, according to Univision

In South Dakota, the forecasts are also alarming. Authorities in the western part of the state warned citizens to prepare for a storm that could leave them more than two feet of snow:

Rapid City, S.D. has also been affected. It hosts the Lakota Nation Invitational, a high school athletic event that brings together thousands of students from native communities in Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Brian Brewer, one of its organizers, told AP that he had warned the schools to travel as early as possible: "We told them with this storm coming — if you leave tomorrow, there’s a good chance you might not make it."

A major traffic accident was reported in northeastern Utah on Monday, in which a tour bus crashed while driving in snow and frigid temperatures. The vehicle rolled over onto its side after its driver lost control of the vehicle while changing lanes, the Utah Highway Patrol said in a statement. The accident resulted in 21 passengers injured, seven of them in serious or critical condition.

The storm will last all week

The snowstorm is the same one that affected California's Sierra Nevada Mountains over the weekend. In the northern part of the state, most mountain roads reopened on Monday, the same day that the alert went out of effect in the state's southern mountains.

Mark Deutschendorf, meteorologist of the National Weather Service office, assured the CNN that this storm is significant: "The snowpack is about 225% of normal, so it's more than twice what we'd be expecting this time in December."

The snowstorm is expected to extend throughout the week. Meteorologists warn that, as the days pass, it could also affect Florida with a widespread plunge in temperatures.