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A massive winter storm packing heavy snow and strong winds hit the Northern Plains and Midwest on Thursday as it made its cross-country journey, killing one person in Michigan and causing massive power outages, flight cancellations and road closures.
Nearly 900,000 customers were without power in five states by Thursday evening, including more than 797,000 in Michigan, according to poweroutage.us. That's down from nearly a million homes and businesses earlier in the day.
In the Northeast, a mix of sleet and freezing rain fell east of Syracuse, New York, into Boston earlier Thursday, Accuweather reported. The East Coast can expect the storm to make its way in that direction later in the week.
For the first time in 34 years, the National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the mountains of Southern California through Saturday. Meteorologists said some coastal areas could see waves as high as 10 feet through Thursday.
“Almost all Californians will be able to see snow from a vantage point later this week if they look in the right direction (i.e., up the hills in the vicinity).” tweeted climate scientist Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles.
The storm is one of a series that has hit the country in the past week.
More than 24 million people in more than two dozen states were under blizzard, winter storm, wind chill and freeze warnings on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Another 49 million people faced winter weather, cold winds and frost.
The northern United States was hit hard this week. Schools and offices were closed, as was the Minnesota legislature. About 90 churches in West Michigan have canceled Ash Wednesday services, according to WZZM-TV.
Meanwhile, some Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern cities recorded new high temperatures of several degrees, said Richard Pan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
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Winter storm: What to expect
Here's a look at the wintry conditions expected to impact the U.S. Thursday through the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service. Weather Forecasting Center:
- Extremely cold air Parts of the West, northern High Plains and upper Midwest will cool through Thursday. These locations can see temperatures as low as 30 to 40 degrees below average. Temperatures in many locations across the northern high plains could drop below zero.
- Heavy snow and some ice It is expected to hit parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast, bringing the potential for up to 18 inches of snow in some areas.
- Strong wind Heavy snow is expected to hit the northern Plains and Great Lakes, with gusts reaching 40 to 50 mph.
- Heavy rainIn addition to heavy snowfall, California is expected to witness, including southern parts of the state. On Thursday and Friday, National Weather Service meteorologists say the heavy snowfall threatening the West “will become more concentrated in California as a new storm system developing off the West Coast turns south and begins heading to the southwest at the end of the week.”
- Freezing rain Rainfall is also expected in parts of the upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast, according to meteorologists. Localized ice could accumulate to a quarter inch or more, especially in parts of western and central Massachusetts. Areas experiencing the heaviest freezing rain may have to contend with treacherous travel and scattered power outages.
A firefighter was killed in Michigan
A volunteer firefighter with the Paw Paw Fire Department in southern Michigan died Wednesday after being electrocuted by a downed power line amid a rare freezing rain and ice storm.
Ethan Quillen was a “husband, father, son, friend, Marine and dedicated firefighter” who was “selfless, kind, loving, hard-working and so much more,” the fire department said.
Consumers Energy said in its own statement that it would investigate the matter and that the company was “saddened to learn of the firefighter's death” and that “extreme weather events like this are difficult for many reasons, but few are more important than the risks faced by many first responders and workers. “They live their lives in serving their community.”
Read the latest news on the Michigan storm:A rare snow storm in Michigan kills one person and cuts power to 700,000 customers
-Frank Whitsell, Detroit Free Press
NWS San Diego issues first ever blizzard warning
For the first time, the National Weather Service's office in San Diego has issued a blizzard warning for the San Bernardino County mountains through Saturday afternoon, the weather service tweeted Thursday.
Meteorologists said, “Travel will be very difficult, if not impossible, due to the very heavy snow and very strong winds expected.” He warned on Twitter.
Three to five feet of snow is expected at elevations more than 5,000 feet above sea level, with sustained winds of up to 35 mph and gusts of up to 60 mph, according to the weather service. Fog and heavy snow can reduce visibility to less than a quarter mile.
Resident: 'Big storm' for Minneapolis
Snowfall in northern Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota is expected to taper off later Thursday and move east, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pedinowski said.
In the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, where winter storm and blizzard warnings ended by midday, meteorologists recorded 12.1 inches of snow at their office in Chanhassen, west of the Minneapolis airport, where 10.1 inches of snow had fallen by Thursday morning.
Sarah Walter, a Southern California lawyer who has lived in Minneapolis for 25 years, said she saw a foot of snow in her area — “which is less than they feared,” she told USA TODAY.
“It may not be historic, but it's still a big storm,” Walter said. “(We're getting) a lot of wind today, so there's a lot of drifting due to a lot of snow.”
Subzero temperatures are cold in Wyoming, Colorado
In Denver, the sun rose as the temperature reached minus 7 degrees on Thursday, and many schools were postponed or canceled. At Denver International Airport, dozens of flights were canceled or delayed due to the cold on the ground or weather conditions elsewhere.
In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the temperature dropped to 11 degrees below zero, and large portions of Interstate 80 – the main east-west route through the state – were closed until conditions improved.
Wyoming Highway Patrol He urged drivers to stay home as search and rescue teams helped a number of people stranded in their cars across the state.
“Even though our skies are mostly blue, the roads are still covered in snow in many locations,” said Doug McGee, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
The nearly 400-mile stretch of I-80 through Wyoming averages 6,000 feet above sea level, and winds that power hundreds of electric turbines often pile snow across the road faster than crews can plow it.
Continued low temperatures and high winds made it difficult for crews to remove drifts, McGee said. Drivers who illegally entered closed roads have complicated their efforts.
“The roads are closed for a reason,” he said. “When people do that, our crews are forced to stop plowing and go to perform rescue operations, further delaying the reopening.”
– Trevor Hughes
The Plains and Midwest are under a blizzard warning
The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, warned that wind speeds would reach 45 mph, making travel “impossible.”
Wind chills as cold as minus 30 degrees can cause frostbite on exposed skin in less than 30 minutes, the weather service warned.
What defines a blizzard?:It is expected that heavy snow and strong winds will sweep the country.
A winter storm brings a foot of snow to parts of New York, New England
A winter storm warning remains in effect for parts of New York and Vermont until 1 p.m. Thursday, and snow accumulations are expected to total up to 12 inches. The snow will taper off “to a light wintry mix on Thursday,” according to the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont.
The warning is also in effect until 7pm Thursday in parts of Maine and New Hampshire. The storm could bring up to 9 inches of snow, as well as sleet accumulations of up to a tenth of an inch.
In parts of the Northeast, snow and ice will create hazardous travel conditions through Friday, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
Portland is experiencing its second snowiest day on record
Residents of Portland, Oregon were in for a surprise when the forecast shifted just a few inches to the second snowiest day on record.
Portland got nearly 11 inches on Wednesday, bringing traffic to a standstill during the evening commute and stranding some drivers on highways for hours. Some spent the night in their cars or left them.
Colby Newman, a meteorologist in Portland, said meteorologists will review the storm to find out why the models were wrong. Newman said forecasts changed quickly within hours as the storm approached.
The weather service predicted a 20% chance of more than 2 inches of snow, and only a 5% chance of 6 to 8 inches of snow. The weather service said it plans to review its work.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner's Office said it was investigating a suspected death due to hypothermia due to the storm.
Amid concern for thousands of people living on Portland's streets, city and county officials said they would open three overnight shelters as well as three more Thursday evening. The sites will be able to accommodate about 700 people.
Search teams are unable to recover bodies in the Cascade Mountains
High winds and heavy snow prevented search teams from reaching the bodies of three climbers killed over the weekend in an avalanche in Washington's Cascade Mountains.
Sunday's avalanche struck a group of six climbers who were ascending a steep, snow-packed gully on 8,705-foot Colchuck Peak, about 70 miles east of Seattle, said Chelan County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Renfield on Tuesday.
The victims are Seung Cho, a 54-year-old Korean national from West Hartford, Connecticut; Jenny Lee, a 60-year-old woman from Bayside, New York; The Sheriff's Office confirmed that Wyone Park, a 66-year-old man from Palisades Park, New Jersey.
Winter storm warning for California
Winter storm warnings were in effect Thursday through Friday along wide swaths of California, from the mountains of Ventura County and the mountains of Los Angeles County to the northern parts of the state near Oregon.
Meteorologists say communities along Interstate 5, which connects Southern California to the Central Valley, received about 2 to 4 inches of snowfall in the past 24 hours.
Weather updates:Southern California is bracing for the first blizzard warning for the Los Angeles area since 1989
“What is unusual about this storm is the depth of the cold air that will move into Southern California and how low some of the snow levels will be, especially as we move into Friday and Saturday,” Pedinowski said.
- Accumulating snow at lower elevations could fall as much as 2,000 feet on average Thursday through Saturday, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
- In areas above 4,000 feet, 1 to 2 feet of snow is possible.
Winter storm tracking
National weather radar
Contributing: Associated Press; Orlando Mayorquin, USA Today
