Powerful storm chain brings blizzard conditions to Upper Midwest
A broad and erratic patchwork of severe weather rumbled across much of the United States on Sunday, bringing heavy snow and impassable roads to the Upper Midwest while damaging winds swept across the Plains. Forecasters said the threats would shift eastward by Monday, with mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C., at greatest risk for high winds and tornadoes, as another round of storms approached. The severe-weather sequence also continued to batter Hawaii, where flooding and power outages left roads closed and shelters opened.
The snow and wind impacts in the Upper Midwest were expected to create major commute problems heading into Monday, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys. Roys said in an interview that the combination of blizzard conditions and high winds would disrupt several major airports.
An area from central Wisconsin to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was likely to see more than 2 feet of snow, Roys said, with higher isolated totals possible on the peninsula. Over 20 inches of snow fell in some portions of southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin as of Sunday afternoon, according to National Weather Service reports, and transportation officials warned that low visibility and snow-covered roadways would worsen.
In Wisconsin, Wisconsin snowplow driver Aaron Haas described the storm as among the worst he had seen in years. Haas said that outside of the city, “You can’t see anything when you’re on the highways outside of the city,” and he said he was stacking snow piles as high as his truck around the town of Marshfield on Sunday.
Air travel disruptions mirrored the ground conditions. FlightAware, which tracks flight disruptions, reported more than 600 canceled flights at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Sunday, with dozens more scrapped through Detroit. O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago reported more than 850 cancellations, with rain and snow expected overnight into Monday.
While the Upper Midwest dealt with snow and wind, Hawaii continued to see severe flooding and damage in recent days, with rain described by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency as falling at 1 to 2 inches an hour overnight. The state of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency data cited by the reporting described the flooding as a major problem in places including Maui, Molokai and the Big Island.
Power outages added to the disruption. PowerOutage.us reported almost 40,000 electric customers in Hawaii without power by midday Sunday. On Maui, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said late Saturday that some areas had received more than 20 inches of rain, and Bissen said the county was seeing “flooding, landslides, sinkholes, debris and downed power lines across the county,” adding “mahalo for continuing to look out for one another.”
Reporting also described rescues and damaged infrastructure. Video tied to Bissen’s posted update showed washed out or collapsed roads, a car stuck by floodwaters, and raging waterways, as National Guard members and fire department workers carried out multiple floodwater rescues. In Maui’s Iao Valley, Tom and Carrie Bashaw said rising waters led part of their home to collapse, and Tom Bashaw told HawaiiNewsNow that after they lost trees, “We started throwing stuff in bags and packing up,” and that when they returned Saturday, “the whole backside of the house” was gone.
As the storm system continued, some evacuation guidance on Maui was later downgraded, the reporting said, with crews pumping water from retention basins to keep it at safe levels. Maui resident and real estate broker Jesse Wald, who recorded video of a coastal road’s collapse, said he had never seen rain like it during his 20 years there, comparing it to a Wisconsin thunderstorm “but times 10.”
Elsewhere, power losses continued alongside weather hazards. PowerOutage.us said more than 210,000 utility customers in six Great Lakes states were without electricity as of Sunday afternoon. Some outages, the reporting said, began Friday when gusts reached 85 mph.
In Nebraska, state officials said National Guard members were deployed to fight multiple wildfires across parts of the range and grassland. Officials reported that three of the largest wildfires had damaged more than 900 square miles as of Saturday, and one fire-related fatality was reported Friday. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen urged residents to follow locally issued evacuation orders and said winds were “supposed to be extraordinary.”
The weather service warned that another wave of severe weather was expected across the Eastern U.S. by late Monday. It said a line of storms with damaging winds would cross much of the region by late Monday, beginning Sunday afternoon and moving through the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys, then entering the Appalachians early Monday and moving toward the East Coast. The service said “severe thunderstorms with widespread damaging winds and several tornadoes” were expected Monday, with the greatest damaging winds forecast for a stretch from parts of South Carolina to Maryland, potentially including Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, D.C.
State and local officials were already preparing. The reporting said schools in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, would be closed Monday, and that the state’s governor urged residents to enable emergency alerts on their phones ahead of expected gusts of 74 mph.