Millions across the US are facing the powerful impacts of a coast-to-coast winter storm that has knocked out power to nearly one million households, cancelled thousands of flights and closed schools and offices. Evoking blizzard conditions in parts of the West and the northern great plains and great lakes areas, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicts as much as 18 inches of heavy snowfall in some areas, along with with winds up to 50 miles an hour.

The vast majority of power outages have occurred in Michigan, with the affect region covering California to the Northeast. PowerOutage.us reports that as of 7 p.m. EST on Thursday, 821,000 households were without power in the state. Wisconsin and Illinois also saw mass outages following the onslaught of snow, rain and sleet.

The weather has had severe disruption