Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Northern states battered by powerful winter storm
More expected as wind, snow ground planes, close roads
PIERRE, S.D. — A brutal winter storm knocked out power in California, closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and prompted nearly 1,500 flight cancellations Wednesday — and the worst won’t be over for several days.
Few places were untouched by the wild weather, some at the opposite extreme. Record highs were set from the mid-Atlantic states down through Florida, with some places expected to reach up to 40 degrees above normal.
The wintry mix was hitting hard in the northern tier of the nation, closing schools, offices, even shutting down the Minnesota Legislature.
Travel was difficult. Weather contributed to nearly 1,500 U.S. flight cancellations, according to the tracking service FlightAware. More than 400 of those were due to arrive or depart from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Another 3,800plus were delayed across the country.
The roads were just as bad.
“A major winter storm and multi-day closures are likely on Interstates and secondary roads throughout Wyoming!” the state Transportation Department said on Facebook.
It wasn’t much better in neighboring states.
“Sometimes it’s physically impossible to keep up with Mother Nature,” said North Dakota Highway Patrol Sgt. Wade Kadrmas.
He warned those who venture out to dress appropriately. Often, when motorists get stranded, “They don’t have a winter jacket. They might be wearing shorts and flip-flops, just thinking they’re going to get from point A to point B and nothing is going to go wrong,” he said.
In the Pacific Northwest, high winds and heavy snow in the Cascade Mountains prevented search teams from reaching the bodies of three climbers killed in an avalanche on Washington’s Colchuck Peak over the weekend.
Powerful winds were the biggest problem in California, toppling trees and power lines. By Wednesday afternoon, more than 88,000 customers in the state were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
A 1-year-old child was critically injured when a redwood crashed onto a home in Boulder Creek, a community in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, KTVU reported. Chief Mark Bingham of the local fire protection district said crews had to cut up the tree to free the victim.
A blizzard warning was issued for the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, effective from 4 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
“Nearly the entire population of CA will be able to see snow from some vantage point later this week if they look in the right direction (i.e., toward the highest hills in vicinity),” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote on Twitter.
A more than 200-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from central Arizona to the New Mexico line closed due to snow, rain and wind gusts of up to 80 mph. Thousands were without power in Arizona.
In the northern U.S., the snowfall could be historic. More than 20 inches may pile up in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said.
Temperatures could plunge as low as minus 20 degrees Thursday and to minus 25 Friday in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wind chills may fall to minus 50, said Nathan Rick, a meteorologist in Grand Forks.
Wind gusts may reach 50 mph in western and central Minnesota, the weather service said.
The storm will make its way toward the East Coast later this week. Places that don’t get snow may get dangerous amounts of ice. Forecasters expect up to a half-inch of ice in parts of southern Michigan, northern Illinois and some eastern states.
The potential ice storm has power company officials on edge.
Nearly 1,500 line workers are ready to be deployed if the ice causes outages, said Matt Paul, executive vice president of distribution operations for Detroitbased DTE Electric. He said a half-inch of ice could cause hundreds of thousands of outages.
A half-inch of ice “is the equivalent of having a baby grand piano on that single span of wire, so the weight is significant,” Paul said.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Richard Bann said that meanwhile, some mid-Atlantic and Southeastern cities set new high temperature marks.
The high in Lexington, Kentucky, reached 76, shattering the Feb. 22 mark of 70 set 101 years ago. Nashville, Tennessee, reached 78, topping by 4 degrees the record set in 1897. Cincinnati, Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama, were among many other places seeing record highs.