The third winter storm to batter the central and eastern United States in a week is finally winding down, but not before dumping serious snow on the Midwest and unleashing blizzard conditions in the Corn Belt. It’s the same system that brought severe weather to the Deep South and is causing flooding, both freshwater and coastal, along the Eastern Seaboard.
Now a new slew of hazards are materializing in the storm’s wake. Bone-chilling wind chills as low as minus-45 are filtering south behind the departing low, bringing dangerous cold to much of the Great Lakes and Plains. The cold will fuel lake-effect snows in Buffalo, which could pile 1 to 3 feet high.
Strong winds are also spilling south from Canada, potentially causing headaches at major airports and exacerbating travel issues. The bigger cold will stick around at least into the middle of next week before slowly relenting.
There are also signs yet another storm system could take shape along the East Coast sometime in the Tuesday time frame.
What cities were hit worst by the storm
Officially, Geneseo, Ill., in the suburbs of Davenport, picked up one of the storm’s jackpot totals — 17.4 inches. That’s just from Gulf of Mexico moisture being swirled over the Corn Belt into a region of chilly subfreezing air. Technically speaking, the storm’s maximum totals, which reached more than 2 feet, were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They were enhanced by the lake effect, though, meaning the snows were supercharged by additional moisture stemming from Lake Superior. In Champion, Mich., there was a tally of 26 inches.
Here’s a look at totals elsewhere from the storm:
25.3 in National Mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
19 inches in Herman, Mich.
16 inches in Institute, Wis.
15.8 inches in Park View, Iowa
15.4 inches in Quad Cities, Ill.
15 inches in Davenport, Iowa
11.5 inches in Omaha, Neb.
The heaviest snows stayed just north of a Chicago to Detroit line. Chicago proper, which did experience thundersnow, tallied about 5 inches give or take on the Lakeshore downtown, but 13 inches fell closer to Rockford. Detroit likewise wound up with 3 or 4 inches of snow, but 8.5 inches was measured in Ortonville, Mich., just a county north of Detroit.
The winds were strong too, causing blizzard conditions across the Corn Belt. Des Moines gusted to 45 mph, and Chicago to 46. Most of the northern Plains saw gusts around 40 to 50 mph.
Plummeting temperatures and dangerous wind chills
Now temperatures are crashing in the storm’s wake. Its counterclockwise circulation is tugging down an Arctic air mass from Canada. The exceptionally cold air, which from just a raw temperature standpoint will at times be 30 degrees below average, will combine with the winds to lead to dangerous wind chills. In some places, frostbite will occur in just a few minutes’ time.
Wind chill warnings have been issued in 16 states, with wind chill advisories reaching all the way south to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Dallas proper will see temperatures drop to 11 degrees on Monday night, with wind chills down to 7 degrees.
In Kansas City, each of the next three nights will feature temperatures colder than minus-5 degrees. Saturday night could dip to minus-12. Combined with a stiff breeze out of the north between 10 and 15 mph with gusts to 30 mph, wind chills could fall to as low as minus-34.
It’s not much better in St. Louis. Even though the city dodged the snows, they’re not escaping the cold. Saturday night will feature a low of minus-3, with a daytime rebound Sunday only to 7 degrees. The wind chill will fall to minus-25. A meaningful spike in temperature doesn’t come until Wednesday.
For Chicago, which is digging out from a plowable snowfall, highs will struggle to make it above zero degrees until Wednesday. Overnight lows could fall to minus-10 by Monday night. Wind chills of minus-30 aren’t impossible.
Across the Northern Plains, some places will see highs in the minus-20s!
How long will this rough weather last?
Weather models suggest the cold will linger into the middle of the workweek. Only then will temperatures start to warm closer to seasonable levels.
At present, Arctic high pressure is sitting directly overhead. It will continue to pave the way for more cold to sag out of the northwest. But by Wednesday, that clockwise-spinning high will sink far enough south and east that a bit of a return southerly flow will overspread the Plains on its back side. That will scour out the cold air and allow comparative mildness to work north.
