Much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest was braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions, while states farther to the south were warned of the danger of flash flooding and tornadoes from a large storm blowing across the country.
An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2 feet of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Meanwhile, ice and sleet were expected within the eastern Great Plains.
The National Weather Service warned that as much as about half an inch of ice could form and winds could gust as much as 45 miles per hour in parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Power outages, tree damage, falling branches and dangerous travel conditions all threatened the region.
“It is a ‘we aren’t kidding’ sort of storm,” the South Dakota Department of Public Safety said Monday in a tweet urging people to replenish on essentials, then stay home once the storm hits.
Portions of Interstate 90 and Interstate 29 through South Dakota were expected to be closed by mid-morning Tuesday because of “freezing rain, substantial snow totals, low visibility, drifting snow and high winds,” the state’s Department of Transportation said. Secondary highways will likely grow to be “impassable,” it said.
Those farther south in Texas and Louisiana could get heavy rains with flash flooding, hail and tornadoes by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. The storm was forecast to proceed southeast into Florida later within the week.
“It should be a busy week while this technique moves across the country,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist on the National Weather Service’s headquarters in College Park, Maryland.
The weather is an element of the identical system that dumped heavy snow within the Sierra Nevada over the weekend before moving east.
In northern Utah, a tour bus crashed Monday morning as snow and frigid temperatures blanketed the region. The bus flipped onto its side in Tremonton after the driving force lost control while switching lanes, the state’s Highway Patrol said in an announcement. The Highway Patrol said 23 passengers were injured, including some seriously.
1000’s of scholars from Native American communities across Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas were traveling to Rapid City, South Dakota, for this week’s Lakota Nation Invitational, a highschool athletic event. Brian Brewer, one in all the organizers, said he had urged schools and participants to travel early.
“We told them with this storm coming — should you leave tomorrow, there’s probability you may not make it,” he said Monday.
In Northern California, most mountain highways had reopened Monday. Remaining warnings within the Southern California mountains were expected to run out late Monday night, the National Weather Service said.
With winter still greater than per week away, it was the most recent fall storm to bring significant precipitation to California, which is coping with the impacts of years of drought which have spurred calls for water conservation.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab northwest of Lake Tahoe reported that the storm dropped 54.5 inches of snow.
The Sierra snowpack, which on average is at its peak on April 1, is generally a big source of water when it melts within the spring. Throughout the drought, experts have cautioned about optimism over early season storms as climate change makes what were once average conditions rare.
Last 12 months, a robust atmospheric river dumped huge amounts of rain on California in October and a wet stretch in December left parts of the Sierra Nevada buried in snow. Then the state experienced its driest January through April on record.