From January 22 through 24, 2016, a major blizzard produced up to 3 ft (91 cm) of snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States. Evolving from a shortwave trough, the system consolidated into a defined low-pressure area on January 21 over Texas. Regarding it as a "potentially historic blizzard", meteorologists indicated the storm could produce more than 2 ft (61 cm) of snow across a wide swath of the Mid-Atlantic region and could "paralyze the eastern third of the nation". Winter weather expert Paul Kocin described the blizzard as "kind of a top-10 snowstorm".