By Jacob Adelman

Businesses from airlines and shippers to grocers and utilities are bracing for a weekend of extreme winter weather that is forecast to dump more than a foot of snow and layers of heavy ice across a swath of the country east of the Rocky Mountains.

From Friday evening through early Monday, Winter Storm Fern is expected to move eastward from Texas through the Northeast, snarling traffic, grounding plans, and delaying deliveries.

Already on Friday afternoon, photos posted on social media showed what were described as empty shelves at supermarkets from Dallas to Boston, as shoppers rushed to fill their pantries ahead of the storm's onset.

"During severe weather, we focus on making sure customers and communities have what they need," said a spokesperson for Walmart, the nation's biggest grocery seller. "We are taking steps to help ensure essential items -- such as blankets, batteries, and other cold-weather necessities -- are available in communities expected to be impacted."

Mixtures of snow and rain were falling across the Southwestern and Southern U.S. Friday afternoon amid plummeting temperatures.

"The system will produce a significant, long-duration winter storm, with widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain," the National Weather Service said Friday morning. "In addition, widespread freezing rain and sleet are expected across the Southern Plains, the Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and the Southeast."

Strong winds could slow flights on Friday at airports in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Airlines said they had begun moving resources around to keep planes from getting stuck and to allocate staff toward hubs where they'll be most helpful with expected passenger and baggage backlogs.

Delta said on its website that about 80 cities served by its network were in the storm's path, with cancellations already being implemented as of Friday afternoon at airports in North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

American Airlines listed dozens of airports across much of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains that it expects will impacted by the storm.

"We're repositioning aircraft, aligning crew resources and reinforcing staffing at key airports while coordinating with our partners to help minimize disruption and set the stage for a fast, safe recovery once conditions improve," American said.

Shipper FedEx posted an alert to customers on its website saying that delays and disruptions may be possible for shipments in affected areas. The shipper said in a statement that it had backup plans in place for the safety of employees and to minimize any impact on service.

United Parcel Service said that it would continue to make pickups and deliveries in regions where conditions allow it to safely operate, but that severe weather may affect operations in some areas.

"Contingency plans are in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as possible," the company said.

Utilities including Entergy -- which operates in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- and Dominion -- with a service area spanning parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- said they had storm-response teams ready to mobilize should outages occur.

"As the forecast for this winter storm shifts more to ice than snow, the likelihood of widespread outages increases," a Dominion spokesman posted on X. The utility "prepares for storms like this year-round. And we'll have hundreds of crews ready to respond to outages."

Write to Jacob Adelman at jacob.adelman@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2026 14:16 ET (19:16 GMT)

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