Arctic air pushed into the Great Lakes and the Northeast on Tuesday, bringing snow, wind and dangerous cold to a region still recovering from a fast-moving storm system across the Midwest that forecasters said intensified into a bomb cyclone. The National Weather Service said the colder air surged in after the earlier storm, and it expected blustery winds to add to the chill.
The agency said low temperatures could dip below freezing as far south as the Florida panhandle. Forecasters also said the wild weather brought a mix of snow, ice and rain at times as the system moved across parts of the Plains and Great Lakes, contributing to treacherous travel.
In the hours after the storm’s worst impacts, power problems were widespread. PowerOutage.us reported that more than 115,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning, about a third of them in Michigan.
As the system moved into Canada, the National Weather Service said frigid air trailing behind it would spread across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country. The weather service said the cold would drive the lake-effect “snow machine” in areas downwind of the Great Lakes.
In parts of western and upstate New York, some locations saw a foot or more of snow Monday, with forecasts calling for totals that could reach up to 3 feet (91 centimeters) this week. The National Weather Service said strong winds on Monday included an 81 mph (130 kph) gust in Buffalo that knocked down trees and wires across the region.
Emergency conditions and cleanup efforts continued as wind-driven impacts played out on the ground. The National Weather Service said the fierce winds on Lake Erie sent water surging toward the basin’s eastern end near Buffalo while lowering water on the western side in Michigan to expose normally submerged lakebed, including the wreck of a car and a snowmobile. Kevin Aldrich, a 33-year-old maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he had never seen the lake recede so much and posted photos showing wooden pilings sticking up several feet from the muck.
Forecasters said the conditions could still produce whiteout conditions in some areas. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned people in impacted areas to avoid unnecessary travel, while Andrew Orrison, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the public that conditions were expected to improve later Tuesday. “At this point, the worst does seem to be over, and we are expecting conditions to improve especially by later today,” Orrison said.
In other parts of the affected region, travelers and residents described the disruptions. Kristen Schultz, who said she was heading home to Alaska, told the AP she took four hours to reach the Minneapolis airport on Tuesday and urged people to build in extra time. “Just give yourself plenty of extra time and that way, even if things go smoothly, you don’t have to be stressed out,” she said.
The storm system’s impacts also included extreme wind and debris in some communities. Videos shared on social media showed people struggling to walk in windy conditions, and a waterway in downtown Buffalo clogged with tree branches and other debris after wind-driven surges from Lake Erie. Diane Miller, in Lackawanna just south of Buffalo, told WKBW-TV that wind blew her off the front steps of her daughter’s house and into bushes; she said she was not seriously hurt.
Beyond the Great Lakes and Northeast, the broader weather pattern included high winds on the West Coast. The National Weather Service said strong Santa Ana winds with isolated gusts topping 70 mph (112 kph) brought down trees in parts of Southern California, and downed powerlines led to the shutdown of a freeway north of Los Angeles for several hours on Monday. Wind advisories had expired by evening, but blustery conditions were expected to continue through Saturday, with thunderstorms possible.
Forecasters also pointed to a potential shift for parts of the West and Southwest around New Year’s Day. Rain on New Year’s Day could potentially soak the Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in about two decades.