220 million freeze across US; strong storm bashes California
More than 200 million people across the nation awoke to freezing temperatures Tuesday, including people in the Southeast, where searchand-rescue efforts continued after tornadoes killed at least 23 people Sunday in Alabama.
“The number of people being affected by this cold is amazing,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines. “It’s just about everywhere – essentially the entire country.”
Yet another potent storm began to move into California on Tuesday, and it’s expected to deliver heavy rain and snow throughout the state. In Santa Barbara County, about 3,000 residents were ordered to evacuate areas scarred by wildfires last year.
Kines said Arctic air masses like the one gripping much of the nation now usually stay east of the Rockies. This one sprawled west, too, reaching into the Pacific Northwest and into Texas and New Mexico, he said.
In places where it should be cold, it’s even colder than it should be, he said, continuing a trend from last month. Temperatures in parts of Montana in February were nearly 30 degrees below average, AccuWeather reports.
In the first few days of March, temperatures have been even more extreme. The temperature hasn’t been above zero in Great Falls, Montana, since March 1, Kines said.
“I know it’s Montana,” Kines said, “but more than three days in a row below zero?”
On Monday, dozens of record lows were set all the way from Washington state to Texas. Everyone shivered again Tuesday as wind chills around zero degrees were reported through parts of the Midwest. It was 4 degrees Tuesday morning in Denver, 10 degrees in Chicago, 11 degrees in St. Louis.
That was all balmy compared to the 22 degree-below-zero reading that greeted residents Tuesday morning in Butte, Montana.
“I know it’s Montana, but more than three days in a row below zero?” Tom Kines
AccuWeather senior meteorologist
In the Southeast, search teams scoured the splintered wreckage of dozens of homes in the rural Alabama town of Beauregard, sifting through debris in temperatures that dipped into the 20s, the National Weather Service in Birmingham reported.
“Another freeze is possible Wednesday night and Thursday morning with temperatures ranging from the middle 20s in the north (of Alabama) to the lower 30s in the south,” the Birmingham office warned.
In California, the storm will bring heavy rain to coastal and valley areas of the state and heavy snow over the state’s higher elevations through Thursday morning, the weather service said. The risk of mudslides is high in Santa Barbara County, where a debris flow through a burn scar in January 2018 destroyed or damaged hundreds of structures in Montecito and killed 21 people.
Kines said the storm battering California will then sweep into the Midwest later in the week before reaching the South and Gulf Coast.
More dangerous storms could again blast the Southeast over the weekend. The weather service warned that severe thunderstorms with possible tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail will be possible across central Alabama late Saturday into Sunday.
“It’s going to be a strong system,” Kines said. “There is no doubt there will be severe weather, maybe all the way up to Missouri.”
The good news is that a March roaring like a wintry lion might actually go out like a quiet lamb. The polar blast finishing up this week should be the last widespread outbreak of frigid air for the winter, said AccuWeather long-range meteorologist Paul Pastelok.
“After this week, with a few brief exceptions, Arctic air will be locked up in northern Canada,” Pastelok said. “There should be an increasing number of milder days as opposed to cold days for the middle and latter part of March in the central and eastern states.”