a A severe storm blew across the country and spawned tornadoes in parts of the country Oklahoma And the Texasincluding Dallas Fort Worth region, as large portions of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions.
An area extending from Montana to the west Nebraska and Colorado It was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said up to 2 feet (61 cm) of snow was possible in some western areas. South Dakota and northwest Nebraska. Meanwhile, ice and frost were expected in the Eastern Great Plains.
Meanwhile, damage was reported in Wayne City, Oklahoma, after the National Weather Service warned of a “confirmed tornado” shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. Video footage from Oklahoma television station KOCO showed extensive damage to a home in Wayne, which is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
In Texas, at least two tornadoes were seen along the storm’s leading edge as it headed toward the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area on Tuesday morning, though the extent of the damage was not immediately known.
The National Weather Service warned that up to half an inch (2.5 centimeters) of ice could form and winds could reach 45 mph (72 kph) in parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Power outages, damaged trees, fallen branches, and dangerous travel conditions all threaten the area.
All of western Nebraska was under a blizzard warning from Tuesday through Thursday, and the National Weather Service said up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow was expected in the Northwest. Officials said winds of more than 50 mph (80 km/h) would sometimes make it impossible to see outdoors.
This is a “we’re not kidding” type storm.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation closed swaths of Interstate 80 and Interstate 76 in the west as heavy snow and high winds made travel perilous. The Nebraska State Patrol, which has been called to deal with several hitchhiking and semi-trailer crashes, urged people to stay off the roads.
“No one is flying right now,” said Justin McCallum, a manager at the Flying J truck stop in Ogallala, Nebraska. He said he went to work before the roads were closed, but he likely won’t be able to go home Tuesday. “I can see the first pillars outside the doors, but I can’t see the rest of the lots outside. Maybe I’ll get a hotel room here tonight.”
“This is a ‘we’re not kidding’ type storm,” the South Dakota Department of Public Safety tweeted Monday. People were urged to stock up on essentials and stay home.
Portions of Interstate 90 and Interstate 29 across South Dakota are expected to be closed by mid-morning Tuesday due to “freezing rain, large total snow, reduced visibility, drifting snow, and high winds,” the state Department of Transportation said. She added that secondary highways would likely become “impassable”.
Farther south, tornadoes, strong winds, hail and flash flooding are expected Tuesday with eastern Texas, much of Louisiana and western Mississippi at risk of severe tornadoes. The threat of severe weather continues through Wednesday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
“It’s going to be a busy week as this system moves across the country,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at National Weather Service headquarters in Maryland.
The weather is part of the same system that dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada over the weekend before moving east.
In northern Utah, a tour bus crashed Monday morning as snow and freezing temperatures blanketed the area. The state highway patrol said in a statement that the bus flipped on its side in Tremonton after the driver lost control while switching lanes. The Highway Patrol said 23 passengers were injured, some seriously.
Thousands of students from Native American communities across Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakota were traveling to Rapid City, South Dakota, for the Lakota Nation Invitational, a high school sporting event this week. Brian Brewer, one of the organizers, said he urged schools and participants to travel early.
“We said to them as this storm approaches – if you leave tomorrow, there’s a good chance you might not make it,” he said on Monday.
In Northern California, most mountain highways reopened Monday. The National Weather Service said remaining warnings in the mountains of Southern California ended Monday night.
With winter just over a week away, the latest fall storm has been bringing heavy rain to California, which is dealing with the effects of years of drought that has spurred calls to conserve water.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab northwest of Lake Tahoe reported that the storm dropped 54.5 inches (138.5 cm) of snow.
The Sierra Ice Pack, which peaks on average around April 1, is an important source of water when it melts in the spring. Throughout the drought, experts cautioned against optimism about early-season storms because climate change is making once-average conditions rare.
Last year, a powerful atmospheric river storm dumped massive amounts of rain on California in October, and a wet stretch in December buried parts of the Sierra Nevada in snow. Then the state experienced its driest January through April on record.
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