A powerful and rapidly intensifying winter storm across the central and eastern United States is providing a harsh reality check, bringing blizzards, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and other troubling conditions to one of the busiest periods of the holiday season: cold, howling winter travel.
More than 30 million people are under winter weather warnings from the Midwest to the Northeast. In the upper Midwest, blizzard warnings are in effect for parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph whipping up heavy snow and causing whiteout conditions.
Long stretches of Interstate 35, a major highway stretching from Texas to Minnesota, were closed or deemed unsafe for travel, leaving more than 125,000 customers without power early Monday, more than half in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.US.
Air travel has also been hit, with thousands of flights delayed or canceled on Sunday, with thunderstorms causing ground suspensions and disruptions at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Nearly 100 centimeters of snow fell in parts of Michigan. As of late Sunday night, Marquette, Michigan had shattered its previous single-day snowfall record of 8.5 inches, gaining 11.5 inches.
Further south and east, the storm’s cold front produced a series of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and several tornadoes reported in parts of Illinois.
The storm developed along a clear boundary separating unseasonably warm air from a frigid arctic air mass moving behind it. In Springfield, Illinois, temperatures dropped from the 70s to the 40s in just a few hours.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri, the high temperature Sunday afternoon was 77 degrees. As the front passed through the city, the National Weather Service reported that temperatures dropped 10 degrees in about 10 minutes. Eight hours later, it was snowing in St. Louis and the temperature was in the low 20s.
The worst of the winter weather continues across the Midwest into Sunday night, with dangerous travel continuing into early Monday morning. Authorities urged people to avoid unnecessary travel, especially in areas under blizzard warnings where visibility could be near zero.
As the system moves eastward Monday into Tuesday, the wintry side will move north and east, bringing mainly rain to much of the Ohio Valley and I-95.
Parts of New England could see freezing rain late Sunday into Monday, increasing the risk of icy roads and power outages. The National Weather Service warns that ice could accumulate at a rate of 0.06 inches per hour.
Ice accumulations of up to half an inch have already been reported in some locations in Michigan and upstate New York.
Behind the storm, dramatic temperature changes occur quickly. Much of the south-central United States will see temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above normal this weekend and 10 to 15 degrees below normal by Monday and Tuesday, returning to colder, more seasonable weather after recent spring-like warmth.
Dangerous -30 degree temperatures will hit parts of North Dakota and Minnesota early Monday morning, making frostbite a serious threat.
More than 100 million people are expected to drive to holiday destinations due to the storm, making an already difficult travel period even tougher. Conditions will improve later in the week, but the dangers of winter will continue as colder air returns as the holiday travel rush continues.
