Several members of Congress may miss the certification of President Trump’s victory on Monday due to a severe winter storm that is set to have serious implications for travel across the East Coast. With a storm warning in place for Washington, D.C. from Sunday night through Tuesday morning, it will be difficult for members to fly in on the day Electoral College votes are counted. 

Speaker Johnson asked his members to stay in the nation’s capital through the weekend for a planned policy strategy session at Fort McNair on Saturday, though there were also concerns that a number of members would be unable to make flights back to the capital on either Sunday night or Monday morning. 

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene sounded off on her colleagues in an X post on Saturday, saying that lawmakers were explicitly told to stay in town, yet many decided to not follow that advice. 

“Jan 6th at 1:00 pm Congress must certify President Trump’s historic election. Washington has a winter storm warning for Jan 5-7th expecting possibly a foot of snow. Many members of congress left town this weekend even though they were told to stay,” Ms. Greene wrote. “I’m here and will walk to the Capitol if I have to.”

Unlike in 2021, it is unlikely that there will be any issues with counting the Electoral College votes. No Democrats have said they will object to Trump’s victory, and even if they did, a House objection would require the signature of a senator. With Republicans in control of both chambers there would be no chance that any objection would make its way through Congress. 

By Sunday morning, delays and cancellations had already begun. According to FlightAware’s Misery Map, there were 181 delays and 56 cancellations at 17 of America’s largest airports between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. 

As of Saturday night, meteorologists were predicting between five and ten inches of snow at Washington between Sunday night and Tuesday morning. A winter storm warning has now been imposed on 27 states, covering more than 60 million people. 

Winter Storm Blair formed over the Great Plains and the Midwest over the weekend, starting out near the Kansas City metro area. By Sunday morning, the storm had made its way to the Ohio River. On Monday, the storm will cover the East Coast from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Norfolk, Virginia — putting D.C. right in the middle of the storm. 

According to the Associated Press, the storm was already having devastating effects on the central United States Saturday afternoon. The Kansas City International Airport temporarily halted all flights due to ice on the ground, while many businesses in the city closed due to concerns about the weather. 

“It will be a major headache,” a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, Tom Kines, said. “The storm not only has the snow threat to it but the ice threat.”