In the northern United States, heavy snow, hail, and gusty winds affected areas from the Great Plains to New England.

In the southern United States, a widespread tornado outbreak along the Gulf Coast caused two fatalities and numerous injuries.

On January 2, 2024, meteorologists from the Storm Prediction Center began tracking a large upper-level trough forecast to move across the United States, with multiple embedded shortwave perturbations.

These elements were conducive to strong thunderstorms across the country, with intensifying winter storm potential across the north and discrete supercell formation in the southeast.

[2] By January 5 as forecast, a powerful winter storm formed in the Gulf of Alaska from the trough, which dove southwards through British Columbia and the Western United States.

The now mid-latitude cyclone then moved eastwards, bringing blizzard conditions to the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains on January 7.

During the early morning hours of January 8, a powerful mid-level shortwave trough was observed moving east across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

This feature initiated blizzard conditions and heavy snow across Southeast Colorado, the Raton Mesa of northeast New Mexico and far western Kansas.

As the storm moved into the Northeastern United States on January 9, heavy rain and flooding occurred, with snow falling in Northern New England.

[11] Blizzard conditions also occurred in the Texas Panhandle, where 4 in (10 cm) of snow fell in Dalhart and winds gusted up to 70 mph (110 km/h).

[20] An evacuation order was briefly issued along the Yantic River in Norwich, Connecticut, due to a partial dam failure from the heavy rain.

[25] Western New York was hit hard by high winds, with winds gusting to 74 mph (119 km/h) in Dunkirk and 78 mph (126 km/h) in Watertown;[26] the National Weather Service's Buffalo office warned in an Area Forecast Discussion that gusts from the southeast descending from Tug Hill could reach "potentially generational" levels.

[29] This large, long-tracked tornado developed over remote swampland north of Chipley, Florida, in Jackson County and moved north-northeastward along Hickshill Road at EF1 intensity, snapping or uprooting trees and damaging an outbuilding.

A couple of churches also had roof and window damage and a metal building was left with a large dent in it and had wall panels removed.

The tornado then briefly reached its peak intensity of high-end EF2 along September Road where a double-wide mobile home was leveled, resulting in a fatality.