Storm threatens snow, rain, gusts in Midwest
Snow, rain and gusting winds lashed large swaths of the Central U.S. on Monday, dashing spring hopes, as the South braced for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes and as the risk of wildfires in southern Texas reached critical levels.
The storm hit with parts of the country still in recovery mode from their own severe weather, particularly in the Northeast. Tens of thousands of people still lacked power in Maine, where a storm coated parts of the state in thick ice.
The new storm was expected to bring strong winds, sleet, freezing rain and snow to a broad swath from the Dakotas to the Gulf Coast through today.
“A lot of people get excited because they think the spring is coming in and the winter’s over, but since I’ve been little, every time there’s that one last snowstorm that we always get, and here it is,” said Jarvis Smith, of Golden Valley, Minnesota, as she shoveled snow.
Warnings or advisories for blizzard or winter storm conditions covered much of Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, upper Michigan, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
In northern parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, snow could fall as fast as 2 inches per hour, the National Weather Service said.
Wind warnings or advisories stretched from Iowa to Appalachia and down to the Gulf Coast. Severe thunderstorms with a threat for tornadoes and other damaging winds were possible in east Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Strong storms, some producing tornado warnings, had already made their way through parts of Oklahoma and Texas on Sunday night.
The new storm was largely expected to spare the Twin Cities area, which was socked Sunday by heavy snow. The state patrol reported about 400 crashes since Sunday that injured over 20 people and killed at least one.
The snow turned into rain early Monday in Minneapolis, making for a slushy morning commute. Nearly all schools in the Twin Cities were closed, and almost three dozen flights were canceled at Minneapolis-st. Paul International Airport.
In South Dakota, traffic moved slowly overnight along a section of Interstate 29 where trucks struggled to make it up a slick hill. Conditions remained slippery in the eastern third of the state, but no fatal accidents were reported.