Blizzards, wildfires and thunderstorms are swirling toward the eastern US having knocked out power to thousands and grounded hundreds of flights across the Midwest.
Heavy snow touched off blizzard warnings from South Dakota to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Sunday, the National Weather Service said. Meanwhile, high winds are shaking power lines and tree branches from Texas to upstate New York, while raising the wildfire risk across the Great Plains.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen has declared an emergency and mobilized the state’s National Guard to help. Wildfires have evacuations and scorched more than 500,000 acres .
The risk of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail will spread on Sunday from the central Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic, including the Washington DC and Richmond, Virginia, areas on Monday, the US Storm Prediction Center said.
“All of a sudden, Mother Nature is having a fit,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center.
The wild weather has had widespread effects on transportation and power supplies across the Midwest, and the heavy snow and cold are forecast to push into areas that depend heavily on natural gas for heating, raising fuel demand days before the arrival of astronomical spring.
As of 6:15 a.m. New York time, 1,135 flights into and around the US had been canceled, mostly in Minneapolis and Chicago, according to FlightAware. More than 165,000 homes and businesses across the US were without power, notably in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, PowerOutage.com said.
High winds Sunday will only make that worse, Oravec added. In addition to the fire threat in Nebraska, governors Tim Walz and Tony Evers of Minnesota and Wisconsin, respectively, have declared emergencies as snow piles up.
Minneapolis may get upwards to 21 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said. More than 30 inches are forecast to the east, across parts of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, before the systems starts to wind down Monday and Tuesday. The snow will be driven by winds gusts up to 60 miles per hour.
“Travel could be very difficult to impossible.” the weather service said. “The hazardous conditions will impact the Monday morning commute.”
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has already seen 250 inches of snow this season, Oravec said, quipping, “I don’t know when it’s going to ever melt.”
Chicago will be spared the worst, seeing mostly rain and the potential for possibly 1 inch of snow overnight. However, the city will be shaken by high winds late Sunday.
Sweltering West
While the Midwest shivers, the US West faces record-breaking heat and the island state of Hawaii has been hit with heavy rains and flooding. Through next Saturday, 444 daily high temperature records may be broken or threatened, mainly west of the Mississippi. The highest concentration is in California and the Southwest, where an extreme heat watch is in place.
Downtown Los Angeles is forecast to reach 101F on Tuesday.
In Hawaii, almost 70,000 homes and businesses were without power overnight, according to PowerOutage.com. Schools, state and local offices were closed across the state Friday and many roads have been closed by floods.
Oravec said the worst of the storm is winding down, yet the state will remain stuck in a deep plume of moisture that will bring more heavy rain through the week.
“It’s amazing how active it’s going to be across the US for the next few days,” he said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
