Weather advisories were issued for most parts of the country Friday as a powerful storm moved over the Plains and Midwest regions, unleashing freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall that blanketed roadways, grounded flights and closed schools.
Morning and afternoon highs won’t surpass zero degrees across much of Montana and North Dakota on Friday while temperatures in the Central Plains states, including Iowa and Minnesota, will peak around the 10s, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures may reach as low as minus 40 for parts of the northern Plains. Amid such conditions, wind chills can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes, the national weather service said.
By 6 a.m. local time, more than 4 feet of snow had fallen in parts of Iowa. Areas across the Midwest are expected to receive snowfall in the double digits by early Saturday morning. The weather service in Chicago reported Friday morning that 2 inches of snow had blanketed the metro area with more expected through the weekend. Flights at Chicago O’Hare International Airport were temporarily grounded.
In the Southeast, damaging wind gusts threatening to produce tornadoes concerned meteorologists, especially in the Gulf Coast region. The weather service issued a tornado watch from eastern Texas to western Mississippi. Wind advisories were in effect in eastern Texas, across the Gulf Coast and up through Vermont.
In the Northeast, the poleward advance of Gulf moisture will lead to yet another round of heavy rain stretching northward into the mid-Atlantic and southern New England by Friday night. Much of the Northeast is still reeling from a winter storm earlier this week that dumped torrential rain over the region, flooding coastal neighborhoods and low-lying areas from New Jersey to Maine.
The Pacific Northwest will also face the frigid combination of artic air and gusty east winds making temperatures below zero degrees possible. The weather service has placed widespread wind chill advisories and watches and has advised people to take precautions to avoid frostbite and hypothermia.
Developments:
∎ Blizzard warnings were issued Friday morning for areas of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to the weather service.
∎ Roads across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and northern Illinois were “completely” covered with snow, slush or ice, according to a regional map of road conditions from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Iowa State Patrol issued a “Life-Threatening Winter Weather Alert” asking people to cease non-essential travel overnight.
∎ More than 240,000 households were without power as of 10 a.m. Friday, according to a tracker maintained by USA TODAY. Most outages were reported in Illinois, where nearly 100,000 utility customers lost power amid freezing temperatures and intense snowfall.
Blizzard forces GOP presidential candidates to cancel events Friday
Blizzard conditions bearing down on Iowa complicated the event schedules of Republican presidential candidates ahead of the start of the state’s caucuses.
Nikki Haley’s campaign canceled three in-person events scheduled Friday in Fort Dodge, Le Mars and Council Bluffs due to the weather. Instead, campaign officials said they would be hosting telephone town halls.
“Stormy weather won’t stop us from ensuring Iowans hear Nikki’s vision for a strong and proud America,” Pat Garrett, a Haley spokesperson, said in a statement to the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. “With only three days until the caucuses, we’re going to keep telling voters why they should Pick Nikki.”
Ron DeSantis also canceled two events Friday morning.
Vivek Ramaswamy, however, said he would continue on with every event as “long as we can physically make it.” His campaign went into a ditch earlier this week and needed the help of a passerby to get out.
– Des Moines Register
Severe weather causes ground stop at Chicago airport
Poor weather conditions on Friday led to more than 1,000 flights at airports across the country to be canceled.
In Illinois, Chicago O’Hare International Airport temporarily grounded all flights on Friday morning due to snow and ice, said the Federal Aviation Administration. Just before 9 a.m., officials reported a 2-hour delay at the airport that is anticipated to last until 8 p.m. local time.
Weather service forecasters warned people throughout the state to consider staying off the roads as snow fell between 1-2 inches per hour and limited visibility. “Expect hazardous to downright dangerous travel conditions today across much of the area,” the weather service in Chicago said.
Schools close amid winter storm, severe weather
School closures were ubiquitous throughout the Midwest and Plains regions as a powerful winter storm dropped temperatures into single digits and below zero.
Hundreds of public schools canceled classes or transitioned to e-learning from Idaho to Illinois. Dozens of schools were closed earlier this week, when a storm barreled across the country and brought blizzard conditions to the Midwest.
In the Southeast, schools throughout Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee canceled classes ahead of expected storms bringing high winds, rain and the threat of tornadoes to the region.
2 men rescued, 1 believed dead in Idaho avalanche
Two men were rescued and a third was believed dead after an avalanche in Idaho swept across the backcountry on Thursday afternoon.
The avalanche happened near Stevens Peak in Shoshone County located in the state’s northern panhandle near the Montana and Washington borders, about 100 miles from Spokane, Washington.
The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office in a statement posted on social media said authorities received a GPS alert of a possible fatality near Steven’s Peak shortly before 3 p.m. Law enforcement assembled a rescue team and were able to locate two of the three men while searching in their last known location. Authorities believe the third man is dead.
“While debriefing the two males, we received information causing us to believe the third male was deceased at the site of the avalanche,” the sheriff’s office said. Authorities begin searching the area again on Friday.
Winter storms barreling through the western United States over throughout the week led forecasters to issue avalanche warnings from northern California up through Washington. The area where Thursday’s avalanche occurred was under a warning.
On Wednesday, an avalanche at a ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California, killed one man and injured three others.
Severe weather to continue into next week
“The storms and winter weather are yet only the first part of the story as a surge of Arctic air into the heart of the country will follow in the storm system’s wake,” the National Weather Service said.
A polar plunge will bring century-old record low temperatures to most of the country at the end of this week and into next week, the NWS reported.
The Subfreezing temperatures that have reached the northern Rockies and Plains will head farther south and east, the service reported. By early next week, Artic air will spread from southern Texas to the Florida Panhandle.
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US weather watches and warnings
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Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY; Associated Press
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