‘Epic’ storm brings blizzards, floods, tornado to US

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A window-rattling late-winter storm brought blizzards, floods and a tornado across more than 25 states Wednesday, stretching from the northern Rocky Mountains to Texas and beyond.

“This is a very epic cyclone,” said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center. “We’re looking at something that will go down in the history books.”

It could develop into the worst storm of its type in more than three decades, he said.

Blowing snow forced portions of major highways to close in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Hundreds of drivers were stranded on Colorado highways, including 500 in the Colorado Springs area alone. Gov. Jared Polis activated the National Guard to help rescue snowbound drivers.

A wind gust of 92 mph was recorded in the mountains northwest of Denver. Hundreds of flights were canceled at Denver International Airport, and many schools and government offices closed. Xcel Energy said 184,000 homes and businesses lost electricity.

In North Texas, severe thunderstorms damaged buildings and flipped over small planes at an airport. Flooding forced evacuations in northeast Nebraska and western Iowa.

Parts of seven states were under blizzard warnings, and 20 states were under some level of high wind alert, Carbin said.

A tornado in New Mexico ripped roofs from buildings in Dexter. Authorities said none of the injuries was life-threatening, but a dairy euthanized about 150 cows injured by the tornado.

High winds knocked 25 freight cars off a railroad bridge into a mostly dry riverbed near Logan in northeast New Mexico.

The storm was expected to drop up to 22 inches of snow in Wyoming, 14 inches in South Dakota and a foot in Colorado.

The culprit was a severe drop in ground-level air pressure in Colorado, Carbin said. It was caused by a combination of the jet stream and normal conditions in the wind shadow of the Rockies. Air rushed into the lowpressure area and then rose into the atmosphere.

Meteorologists call the phenomenon a “bomb cyclone” or “bombogenesis.”