Blizzard Warning in Iowa Slows Campaigns as Race Barrels to a Close

Former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina canceled her town-hall events in Iowa that had been scheduled for Friday, citing what forecasters for the National Weather Service called “life-threatening winter weather.”

Ms. Haley’s in-person events will be turned into “telephone town halls” instead. But Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy entrepreneur, said they would press forward with campaign events scheduled for Friday, for now.

A Thursday evening forecast from the National Weather Service office in Des Moines said that widespread heavy snowfalls would begin Thursday and last through Friday night, accompanied by wind gusts of up to 45 miles an hour. The agency added that “travel may become impossible in rural areas by Friday afternoon into Friday night across central Iowa.”

Mr. DeSantis has five campaign events planned on Friday in Iowa, beginning with an early morning town hall where he will be accompanied by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed his bid.

Mr. Ramaswamy also has five events planned. He defied earlier warnings of bad weather this week, declaring that “if you can’t handle the snow, you can’t handle Xi Jinping.”

The winter weather isn’t letting up as Caucus Day on Monday approaches. The National Weather Service said that extreme wind chills, as low as 40 degrees below zero, would be present across Iowa on the night of the caucuses. Forecasters stressed that “this is life-threatening cold” and added, “Anyone caught outside will be in danger.”

Kellen Browning, Anjali Huynh and Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.