More than 1,000 flights were canceled across the country on Wednesday and northern Plains states halted activities ahead of a massive winter storm that might dump up to two feet of snow in some areas, accompanied by strong winds and dangerously cold temperatures.
By 8 am, the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee had reported the most canceled flights, according to the FlightAware flight tracking service.
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Southwest Airlines, the carrier of Dallas, which has frequent flights to those destinations, had canceled 235 flights and delayed more than 360.
Blizzard conditions are part of a severe weather event forecast for the north of the country.
Gusty winds, combined with snow and rain, forced the closure of a long stretch of interstate highway in the Southwest.
On the other hand, many places from the mid-Atlantic coast to Florida are expected to see record high temperatures, in some cases up to 40 degrees above normal.
Many schools in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin canceled classes Wednesday in anticipation of the storm.
Offices closed, and so did the Minnesota Legislature.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem ordered executive branch offices in various parts of the state to close and employees were working remotely.
The storm is heading towards the East Coast this week. Places where it doesn’t snow might accumulate dangerous amounts of ice.
Forecasters are forecasting up to a half-inch of ice in parts of southern Michigan, northern Illinois and some eastern states.
The snowfall might be historic even in regions accustomed to heavy snowfall.
It is estimated that up to 25 inches of snow might accumulate.
The largest volume would fall in east-central Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service.
Wind gusts might reach 50 mph, and wind chills are expected to be as low as minus 50 degrees in parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul might receive more than two feet of snow for the first time in more than 30 years.
Some families rushed Tuesday to stock up on groceries before the bad weather.
At a Costco in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb, Molly Schirmer bought several packages of prepared dinners and Mexican Cokes, knowing that she and her two teenage children might have to stay home.
“Schools are already preparing to go online, so kids will probably be working from home,” said Schirmer, whose sons are 13 and 15.
crazy weather
Temperatures in the northern part of the country might drop to as low as minus 20 degrees on Thursday and as low as minus 25 on Friday in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Wind chill might be as low as minus 50 degrees, said Nathan Rick, a Grand Forks meteorologist.
In western and central Minnesota, wind gusts might reach up to 50 mph, resulting in “squalls and total whiteout in open areas,” according to the weather service.
According to the weather service, the heaviest snowfall on record in the Twin Cities was 28.4 inches between October 31 and November 3, 1991, and became known as the Halloween Blizzard.
The second largest was 21.1 inches of snow and lasted from November 29 to December 1, 1985.
On January 22 and 23, 1982 the Twin Cities received 20 inches of snow.
AccuWeather says such a system might lead to ice formation in a 1,300-mile swath from near Omaha, Nebraska, to New Hampshire on Wednesday and Thursday.
While the north of the country faces this winter system, warm weather is expected for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, between 30 and 40 degrees above normal in some points.
Record high temperatures are forecast from Baltimore to New Orleans and across much of Florida, said National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Pereira.
Washington, DC, might hit as high as 80 degrees on Thursday, surpassing the record of 78 degrees set in 1874.
A 200-plus-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from central Arizona to the New Mexico border was closed Wednesday morning due to strong winds reaching 80 mph, as well as snow and rain.
Thousands of people were without power in Arizona.
California was also bracing for the latest in a series of winter storms when winds that began Tuesday brought the possibility of rain, snow and hail to much of the state.
A “major snow event” was forecast for the hills and mountains near Los Angeles, as well as several inches of snow even at elevations of 1,000 feet, the weather service announced.
