Blizzard conditions bearing down on central U.S.
OMAHA, Neb. — A “highly impactful” winter storm delivered a punch to the country’s midsection on Monday, with blizzard conditions dumping as much as a foot or more of snow and shutting down schools and highways in several Midwest states.
Through Tuesday, snow as deep as 12 inches could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including western Kansas, eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md.
“So a very, very highly impactful event coming forward,” Oravec said.
There were widespread school closures across Nebraska and Kansas on Monday ahead of the storm, where forecasters predicted 5 to 8 inches of snow.
The school district that includes Nebraska’s capital, Lincoln, told students to stay home. Lines were long Sunday at a Target Store drive-up in Omaha as residents stocked up on milk, bread and booze ahead of the storm.
Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska closed a stretch of Interstate 80. Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central city of Russell to the Colorado border due to dangerous travel conditions.
The weather service office in Des Moines, Iowa, warned of the potential for “widespread heavy, possibly extreme, snowfall” of up to 15 inches and said commuters Tuesday morning would face “significant impacts,” with possible whiteout conditions at times.
Dubuque, on Iowa’s eastern border with Illinois, will close its city offices Tuesday. Schools in Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa were among those closing Tuesday.
The weather has already affected campaigning for the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, where the snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below zero degrees by caucus day next week. It forced former President Donald Trump’s campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trump’s behalf Monday.
The Illinois Tollway, a state agency that maintains nearly 300 miles of toll roads across 12 northern Illinois counties, urged drives to take a similar “go it slow” attitude. The agency planned to deploy its entire fleet of 196 snowplows to clear snow and ice and help stranded drivers.
And another storm is on the way that will affect the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, Oravec said.
Blizzard warnings were out for much of the Cascade and Olympic ranges in Washington and Oregon.