The Midwest is getting snow: Weather, wind and wind warnings for Minnesota, Nebraska, Michigan, and the Twin Bridges and Truckee storms
The National Weather Service warns of life threatening wind chills for millions, as a strengthening storm will bring more than a foot of snow to the Midwest.
In 48 hours, Twin Bridges got 48 inches of snow, followed by 46 inches in Truckee, 45 inches in Donner Peak and 44 inches at Palsades Tahoe Ski Base.
A tornado watch is in effect for parts of Texas and Oklahoma. There is a chance of a couple of tornadoes, hail and gusts of wind up to 75 mph.
With the storm expected to hit some areas with severe weather, it could bring much needed relief to the Mississippi River Valley area, which has been suffering from lack of precipitation.
travel conditions will become difficult to impossible in parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan where the storm peaks on Thursday and Friday. Major cities like Chicago, Kansas City, St Louis, Twin Cities and Detroit are under winter storm warnings for heavy snow and near blizzard conditions.
Winter storm warnings were in place overnight for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, where an additional foot of snow could fall in the highest elevations before 4 a.m.
On roads and highways from Wyoming to Missouri, wind and snow combined to lower visibility, making it was dangerous to drive. Officials in multiple states, including Colorado and Illinois, urged drivers to avoid travel if at all possible.
The National Weather Service Forecaster in Reno said that the snow level is 225′′ of normal, so it is more than what was expected.
It looks a lot like Christmas. “It didn’t come with a lot of wind, and it stuck to everything. It’s like a picture postcard.”
While he noted the snow totals so far are impressive, Deutschendorf said he is “cautiously optimistic” about this precipitation putting a big dent in the state’s drought.
Snowfall in the Palisades Valley, California, on December 1st, and through the Northern Plains, Wednesday through Thursday, March 3rd
“We’re Buried,” the Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort wrote on its website Sunday, sharing photos of thick snow covering the ski resort in Olympic Valley, California.
“This is definitely a storm to remember. We’ve now received 7.5 feet of snow since December 1st. In just 24 hours, we received more than 35 inches of snow, making it the sixth largest snowfall total on record.
The coast-to-coast storm – which walloped the West over the weekend – is expected to strengthen as it pushes eastward Tuesday, and stall across the central Plains into Thursday, snarling travel amid blowing snow and freezing rain.
Blizzard conditions will “ramp up” overnight in the upper Midwest, and central Plains as residents brace for “a long drawn out period of snowfall,” according to Brandon Wills, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Mike Bardou, the forecaster at the NWS office in Chicago, said that there was going to be enough snow with the wind to create dangerous driving conditions. “Significant blowing and drifting is going to be possible to a level that people may get stuck in drifts and then perhaps be stranded in now bitterly cold temperatures.”
The National Weather Service office in Rapid City, South Dakota, said travel through the area will be nearly impossible Tuesday and Wednesday, and possibly into Thursday.
There were various winter weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Transportation said in a tweet Monday, “Challenging winter weather could impact travel statewide all week.”
The University of Alaska and the Alaska Pacific University were closed Monday due to the “unprecedented amount” of snow in the area.
Flash Flooding and Flux Flooding in the Appalachian Mid-Atlantic Region During the Eleven Degrees of Cold Front in Tennessee
Tuesday also brings a risk of flash flooding due to excessive rainfall “from far east Texas into the lower Mississippi Valley,” warns the Weather Prediction Center. There is a chance of up to 4 inches of rain.
The areas that needed the water have been showing great relief in the past week. This week, Tennessee’s was at 46%, which is more than the rest of the state.
More than 90 million people are under winter weather alerts and more than 87 million are under wind chill alerts. The alert spans across 37 states, including the Texas/Mexico border.
The cold front has moved so swiftly that temperatures across the Rocky Mountains plunged at record paces. On Wednesday night in Cheyenne, Wyo., the temperature dropped more than 30 degrees in just nine minutes.
There is a dangerous wind chill. The wind will cause wind chills that will be dangerous in the central and eastern US.
“Whiteout conditions are expected during that time with travel becoming very difficult or impossible,” said the weather service. If you are stranded in a wind chill of 30 below to 45 below zero, you could be in serious danger.
In Chicago, the weather service office warned of a potential impact on the evening peak travel window due to the quick development of dangerous conditions Thursday afternoon.
Power Outage.US: Forecasts for East-West Snowfall and a “Bomb Cyclone” as a Category 3 Hurricane Moves Through the Great Lakes
The website Power Outage.US says that 1.2 million customers in the US are without power due to the cold weather. New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maine all have a number of people without power.
Snow could fall as far south as Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee and even Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday. Little to no accumulation is expected for most of the southern cities, however, Nashville could pick up about an inch of snow.
In anticipation of what will be a week of travel nightmares, United, American, Delta, Southwest and Jet Blue have issued travel waivers for dozens of airports across the country from the South to the Northeast, because in addition to snow covering roadways, low visibility could make air travel dangerous.
As it treks east across the country, the storm is expected to become a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly strengthening storm which drops 24 millibars of pressure within 24 hours. The storm’s pressure was forecast to match that of a Category 2 hurricane as it moved into the Great Lakes on Friday morning.
The storm is expected to reach the pressure equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane as it reaches the Great Lakes, with the weather service describing the strength of the low a “once-in-a-generation” event.
“This is a case in which snow totals may not tell the whole story. Poor visibility and slick spots on the roads can be caused by even small snow amounts and very strong wind gusts. The weather service said that the sudden arrival of the conditions can make them more dangerous.
Some major cities in the eastern part of the US have their coldest Christmas in decades, as frigid cold temperatures grip most of the US.
Governors in at least 13 states, including Georgia and North Carolina in the South, have implemented emergency measures to respond to the storm. Declarations of a state of emergency in several states have included the activation of National Guard units.
The governor said the declaration will help ensure that essential supplies, especially propane, can be delivered for both commercial and residential needs.
The Kentucky Winds, Wind Chilling, and Unpredictability for a Winter Weather Event with a 2021 U.S. Winter Storm
Kentucky Gov. Beshear declared a state of emergency due to the predicted wind gusts that are expected to be between 40 to 50 mph and wind chills that will be between 10 and 26 degrees. Beshear asked residents to stay off roads and to have a backup heat source.
Jackson and Birmingham will spend more than 80 hours below freezing. Houston could sit below freezing for 46 hours between Thursday and Saturday.
President Biden spoke to reporters Thursday morning in front of a national map of wind chill forecasts. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is serious stuff.”
In Texas, where more than 200 people were killed when a 2021 winter storm overwhelmed the power grid, officials expected it would hold up as forecasts called for little precipitation.
“The grid is ready and reliable,” said Peter Lake, chairman of the state’s Public Utility Commission, in a Wednesday news conference. “We expect to have sufficient generation to meet demand throughout this entire winter weather event.”
The brutal weather conditions have also snarled travel during the busy holiday weekend, with more than 5,000 flights canceled Friday, more than 3,400 flights canceled Saturday, and more than 1,000 canceled for Christmas Day.
On the City’s Snowy Way, a Way for the Humans. The Chicago Library is Closed during the Winter Storm Holiday Travel
In Chicago, up to 8 inches of snow was expected to fall over the course of the day on Thursday and Friday, and temperatures were expected to fall below zero overnight.
The city’s major airports, O’HIRE and Midway, both serve as hubs for major airlines, and crews were working around the clock to keep flights moving.
More than 200,000 gallons of liquid deicer for runways and taxiways, more than 5,000 tons of salt, and more than 350 pieces of snow removal equipment, are all available to these hard-working individuals.
Hundreds of miles away in Kansas City, the winter weather brought only an inch or two of snow. But temperatures were expected to remain below freezing for days, putting a strain on the city’s homeless services.
There were several area shelters that added beds this week; many were reporting being at or near capacity. Instead, some people sought shelter on the city’s streetcar, which was operating Thursday after crews had worked from 4 a.m. to clear the route and platforms.
“The library is closed. Pete, who refused to give his last name to KCUR, said that he was likely to get kicked out of his apartment if he went into a parking garage. There isn’t much you can do.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1144970060/winter-storm-holiday-travel
An Interstate Highway Weather Report from Montana During the First Day of Winter Break, and a Newly Broken Dodge Caravan in Kansas City
In Montana, the sun was out Thursday as the snow had moved eastward toward the Midwest. The cold will stay until the weekend, according to forecasts.
“We’re very hardy here,” said Lisa Carter, who operates a snowmobile rental business in West Yellowstone. “We deal with cold like this all the time. We’re not doing anything extra because we’re used to it. We don’t go outside.
Hank said he would keep hay out for his cattle during the cold weather as the high temperature was expected to be 13 degrees.
Reporting from Bruce Konviser, WPLN’s Paige Pfleger and Blake Farmer, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and David Schaper and the Associated Press was used in this report.
hundreds of miles of road were being closed and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. In New York, there was flooding along the Long Island Rail Road that affected part of the Long Beach branch.
Mick was two hours into the storm in New York and he said that Christmas is canceled. All family and friends agreed it was safer this way.
In Kentucky, three people died due to the storm, including two in vehicle crashes and the other a “housing insecure” person in Louisville, Gov. Andy Beshear said. The autopsy on the man’s body would determine the cause of his death, as there were no obvious signs of trauma.
In Kansas City, one person died after losing control of their Dodge Caravan on icy roads Thursday afternoon, according to the Kansas City Police Department. The Dodge fell down the embankment over the wall and then landed upside down in the creek, police said.
The East End of Christmas: A Winter Storm and Forecasts for Washington, Washington, and Oregon, as the National Weather Service reveals an exceptionally cold weekend on Friday
Life threatening cold has pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast and the Mexican border, with below zero wind chills reported as far south as Austin and Atlanta. Many places in the eastern US are going to be very cold on Christmas Eve as the storms reach their peak.
The National Weather Service said the watch warning graphic shows one of the largest swaths of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.
“I called it a kitchen sink storm because it is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink,” Hochul said at a press conference Friday afternoon. We had ice, floods, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything Mother Nature could throw at us this weekend.
For Brian Trzeciak, the storm was “living up to the warnings” at his home in Hamburg, New York. Buffalo’s airport, just to the north, reported zero visibility shortly after noon on Friday.
He said that his mother and sister’s family lived in the other direction. “We always get together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but we’re all hunkering down in our houses until it all stops on Monday.”
• It will remain very cold: Friday will bring record-low temperatures in large swaths of the US, including from the Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and stretching across large sections of the east from the Southeast, through the Southern to Central Appalachians and into the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service.
• Whiteout conditions: Blizzard conditions may exist even if snowfall stops, because high winds can pick up snow already on the ground and cause low visibility.
The runways at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were closed due to the ice, and nearly all flights in and out of the airport were canceled. Further, all express services for Sound Transit, a regional transportation network in the Seattle metro area, were suspended Friday due to the icy conditions.
A winter storm warning is also in effect for northeastern Oregon, including Portland, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST. Total snow and sleet accumulations of up to one inch and ice accumulations of .2 to .4 inches is likely as well as winds gusting to 55 mph. Wind chills as low as zero are possible, and frostbite is possible on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
The Nashville Fire Department says Winter Storms can lead to a life-threatening flood, but they can happen at high winds and high winds, according to Aaronson
There were multiple vehicle crashes and at least four people were killed in a pileup on the Ohio Turnpike.
The arctic blast brought conditions to parts of the South not seen in a quarter century. In Nashville, temperatures fell below zero on Friday for the first time since 1996.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has asked local utilities to cut electricity use because the power grid is not used to this cold. Customers in Nashville will experience 10-minute outages every few hours, until the power load stabilizes.
Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness at the Edison that getting the power restored in weather like this is a significant challenge.
It is sometimes difficult to get to these areas with downed power lines, trees and icy roads. … If the wind is more than 35 miles an hour, bucket trucks can’t be used. “And so those combination of things will limit the ability of crews to get out there and get the power back on.”
Heavy rains and high winds caused flooding along the New Jersey coast, which reached as high as 9 feet. Interior locations along the Hudson River also flooded.
“This is a life-threatening dangerous event,” Hochul said Friday afternoon at a news conference in Albany. “Protect yourselves, protect your families. You know the roads are safe, so don’t travel until they are open.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/24/1145419116/winter-storm-travel-power-outage-dangerous-conditions
Christmas Eve in the Northeast: New York City, ConEdison, Natural Grid, PowerOutage.us, and Erie County, Missing Connecting Flights During a 15 Degree Decay
“So that really affects anybody who’s got a connecting flight, and we’re going to see a lot of people missing connecting flights with these long delay times,” she said.
New York City saw record cold temperatures on Christmas Eve at several locations, including its JFK and LaGuardia airports. The temperature was 15 degrees at Central Park on December 24th, making it the second-coldest December in at least 150 years, according to the National Weather Service.
At least 22 deaths have been attributed to dangerous weather conditions since Wednesday, and some residents in the Northeast are spending the holiday without sufficient heat or hot water as extremely cold temperatures persist.
Across the US, 275,856 homes and businesses in the US had no electricity service as of 1 a.m. ET, many of them in Maine and New York, according to PowerOutage.us. Since the start of the storm the number of outages has at times exceeded a million customers.
In New York, ConEdison and Natural Grid US told customers to conserve energy because of extreme weather conditions and increased energy demand.
The operator, PJM Interconnection, serves about 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and warned rolling blackouts could happen if the strain becomes too much.
Meanwhile, a shortage of electricity in Texas prompted the US Department of Energy to declare an emergency Friday, allowing the state’s energy provider to exceed environmental emissions standards until energy usage drops.
In Jackson, Mississippi, the cold weather has hampered efforts to repair a large water main break, which caused a loss of water pressure for residents.
On Christmas Eve crews are working to restore pressure to residents, while braving the cold. Their sacrifice does not go unnoticed and is appreciated not only by this administration, but also by every resident who is affected,” the release stated.
In New York’s Erie County, 500 drivers were stuck in their cars for several hours Saturday morning despite a county ban on driving during the storm.
The National Guard was called in to help people get out of their cars and give rides to medical workers who had been working for a long time.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/25/weather/christmas-arctic-winter-storm-power-outages-sunday/index.html
Three deaths in Erie County, New York, as a result of the New York-South storms and a storm forecast for the Pacific Northwest and California
In Seattle, Washington, online videos have documented cars sliding on the icy roads and bumping into each and residents slipping as they walked on sidewalks, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.
“I’ll be asking the federal government for a declaration of emergency that’ll allow us to seek reimbursements for the extraordinary expenses of all the overtime and the fact that we brought in mutual aid from other parts of the state,” Hochul said to reporters Saturday. We have deployed individuals and the utility crews have come to make sure all vehicles are kept up to date.
New York’s three storm-related deaths were reported in Erie County. Two died in separate incidents Friday night when emergency medical personnel could not get to their homes in time for medical emergencies, Poloncarz said Saturday morning. A county spokesman confirmed Saturday afternoon that there were more deaths, but they were not immediately available.
Two lives were lost in Buffalo because the people weren’t able to get to medical attention during the storm, Hochul said.
• Colorado: Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, with one man found near a power transformer of a building possibly looking for warmth, and another in a camp in an alleyway.
The storm system is forecast to gradually weaken as it lifts into southeastern Canada, moving slowly during the next couple of days and pulling arctic air from Canada down into much of the eastern side of the country.
By Christmas night into Monday, another low pressure system coming from the Pacific will deliver the next surge of moisture toward the Pacific Northwest and then into northern California, according to the Weather Service.