The freeze event that dominated the Midwest and Great Plains has shifted its center of gravity eastward, with the National Weather Service maintaining 14 active Freeze Warnings across 11 states and the District of Columbia — a geographic pivot from yesterday’s 20-alert, 12-state pattern that was concentrated in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Upper Midwest.
Today’s warnings cover DC, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Midwest anchor remains — northern Lower Michigan counties including Emmet, Cheboygan, Presque Isle, Otsego, and Alpena are under warning until 8 AM EDT, with interior low-lying areas expected to drop into the mid to upper 20s. Shoreline locations near the Great Lakes may stay just above freezing.
The more notable expansion is across the Appalachian corridor. The National Weather Service is warning of sub-freezing temperatures as low as 27°F in parts of West Virginia — including Northwest and Southeast Pocahontas, Southeast Randolph, Southeast Webster, Southeast Fayette, Southeast Nicholas, and Southeast Raleigh counties — with warnings valid until 9 AM EDT. Western Maryland and portions of central and western Virginia face lows as low as 28°F under the same timeline.
In Ohio, the warning footprint is broad, stretching from the Lake Erie-adjacent counties — Lorain, Geauga, Ashtabula Inland, Huron — south through Summit, Portage, Trumbull, Stark, Mahoning, and into Holmes, Knox, and Wayne counties. Eastern Kentucky counties including Greenup, Carter, Boyd, Lawrence, Perry, Morgan, Athens, Washington, Jackson, Vinton, Meigs, and Gallia are also included, as is a wide swath of West Virginia extending from Mingo and Logan counties in the southwest to Harrison, Taylor, Upshur, and Barbour in the north-central part of the state.
The primary threat is consistent across all active alerts: frost and freeze conditions capable of killing crops and other sensitive vegetation, as well as potential damage to unprotected outdoor plumbing. The National Weather Service advises taking steps now to protect tender plants.
Residents in affected areas of the mid-Atlantic and Appalachian highlands — including those tracking conditions in Charleston, WV and Pittsburgh — should expect the coldest readings overnight and into early morning hours before temperatures moderate.
The alert count has dropped from yesterday’s peak of 20, suggesting the cold air mass is contracting rather than expanding, though the eastward shift brings it into more densely populated corridors along the I-79 and I-81 corridors through the Appalachians.