A brutal winter storm knocked out power in California and the Midwest, closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and prompted more than 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: Long-standing record highs were broken in cities in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic, and Southeast. The wintry mix was hitting hard in the northern US, closing schools, offices, and the Minnesota Legislature. Travel was difficult, the AP reports. Weather contributed to more than 1,500 US 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 5,000-plus flights were delayed across the country.
The roads were just as bad. Wyoming's Transportation Department posted on social media that roads across much of the southern part of the state were impassable, with "blowing snow and reduced to poor visibility into Friday!" It wasn't much better in neighboring states. North Dakota Highway Patrol Sgt. Wade Kadrmas warned those who venture out to dress appropriately. Often, when motorists get stranded, he said, "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." 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 65,000 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. A blizzard warning was issued for the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, effective from 4am Thursday to 4pm 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," UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted. 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.
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In the northern US, the snowfall could be significant. More than 18 inches may pile up in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures could plunge as low as 20 degrees below zero 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. 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. Matt Paul, of Detroit-based DTE Electric, said a half-inch of ice could cause hundreds of thousands of outages. A half-inch of ice covering a wire "is the equivalent of having a baby grand piano on that single span of wire," he said.
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