Powerful storm disrupts travel with blizzard conditions and tornadoes as winter returns to the US with a vengeance

CNN

By CNN Meteorologist Briana Waxman, Chris Dolce

(CNN) — A powerful, rapidly intensifying winter storm sweeping across the central and eastern United States is knocking out power and snarling travel during one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season.

The wide-ranging storm has brought blizzard conditions, strong winds, an ice storm, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes and is being followed by extreme temperature drops that are plunging millions back into the throes of winter.

The storm adds to an already challenging travel period, with more than 100 million people expected to drive for end-of-year trips. Sunday and Monday were also expected to be two of the busiest air travel days of a holiday period that may set records, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Thousands of flights were delayed or canceled Sunday, including disruptions at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where thunderstorms prompted a temporary ground stop.

There have been hundreds of crashes in Minnesota since the storm began Sunday, including 31 with injuries, according to the state patrol. Minneapolis-St. Paul has seen nearly 6 inches of snow and wind gusts over 30 mph.

Dozens of crashes were also reported in Iowa Sunday, including a 14-vehicle crash on Interstate 35, according to its state patrol. Blizzard conditions closed I-35 from Ames, Iowa, north to the Minnesota border, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. The road remains closed Monday.

The storm’s powerful winds knocked out power to more than 200,000 customers in the Great Lakes and Interior Northeast, most of them in Michigan, Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

Parts of Michigan have received close to 2 feet of snow: Marquette picked up 11.5 inches on Sunday alone, a new daily record, on its way to 22.3 inches of snow and counting.

As if a blizzard weren’t enough, the storm’s cold front also sparked a line of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and a few tornadoes reported in parts of Illinois, including one that destroyed structures just outside of Decatur.

Northeast, Great Lakes face high winds, snow and ice Monday

More than 30 million people are under winter weather alerts from the Midwest into the Northeast, including blizzard warnings for wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph whipping snow into whiteout conditions.

As the system pushes east Monday into Tuesday, its wintry and windy side will shift toward the eastern Great Lakes and northern New England. The I-95 corridor of the Northeast will receive mainly rain.

Parts of northern New England have seen freezing rain Monday morning, raising the risk for icy roads and power outages. Ice had accumulated 0.25 inches or more thick in parts of northern New York and northern Vermont.

Strong winds and snow will cause challenging travel conditions to spread from Lower Michigan to western New York and northwest Pennsylvania.

High wind warnings have been posted across some of these areas on Monday, including Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, New York. Wind gusts up to 60 mph are expected in most areas, but the shore of Lake Erie and downtown Buffalo could see gusts up to 75 mph.

The winter storm will lock snowy conditions in over the Great Lakes snow belts into the New Year. Snow totals could reach 1 to 3 feet to the southeast of Lake Erie and east of Lake Ontario in western New York through the end of the week.

Extreme temperature change follows storm

Much of the central and southern US will go from 20 to 30 degrees above average this weekend to 10 to 15 degrees below average by Monday and Tuesday.

Dangerous wind chills as low as minus 30 degrees across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota early Monday will make frostbite a real threat.

The return to colder, more seasonable conditions after the recent stretch of record-breaking springlike warmth is thanks to a frigid Arctic air mass moving in behind the winter storm.

Temperatures have dropped by as much as 55 degrees over 24 hours in Missouri, with more widespread drops of 25 or more degrees in a larger chunk of the Midwest and South.

The temperature drops were sudden and dramatic on Sunday.

In Springfield, Illinois, temperatures dropped from the 70s into the 40s in just a couple of hours.

The high temperature in St. Louis, Sunday afternoon was 78 degrees — an all-time December record. The temperature dropped 10 degrees in about 10 minutes as the cold front passed through the city, the National Weather Service reported. Eight hours later, St. Louis was experiencing snow and temperatures in the low 20s.

While winter storm conditions improve later in the week, the reset to colder air will keep winter hazards in play as the holiday travel rush continues.

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