A storm chain hit the Upper Midwest and Plains on Sunday
A broad patchwork of severe weather affected much of the United States on Sunday, bringing heavy snow and making some roads impassable in the Upper Midwest while damaging high winds swept across the Plains, the Associated Press reported.
Hawaii also remained under the impact of severe flooding. Meanwhile, portions of the mid-South were preparing for late-day thunderstorms, with forecasters expecting the severe-weather threat to spread eastward by Monday.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys said successive “punches of snow, wind and severe weather were set to impact the eastern half of the United States,” and warned that the storm conditions could affect major transportation hubs.
Blizzard conditions and travel disruptions in the Upper Midwest
An area from central Wisconsin to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was likely to see over 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow, with higher isolated totals on the peninsula, Roys said. Lower accumulations—such as around Chicago and Milwaukee—were expected to still create trouble for commuters Monday.
Over 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow fell in some portions of southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin as of Sunday afternoon, according to National Weather Service reports. Transportation officials warned of worsening conditions, including low visibility and snow-covered roadways.
Wisconsin snowplow driver Aaron Haas, speaking from the town of Marshfield, said: “You can’t see anything when you’re on the highways outside of the city.” He also described the storm as one of the worst he had seen in years.
Jim Allen, 45, who lives on the Upper Peninsula, said his family stocked up on necessities and that he was ready to clear snow several times Sunday with a shovel and snowblower. Allen said: “We’re basically prepared to just kind of hunker down for a few days if we need to.”
More than 600 flights canceled in Minnesota; 850+ in Chicago
Air travel disruptions mirrored the storm’s impact. More than 600 flights were canceled at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Sunday, according to FlightAware. Dozens more flights through Detroit were also scrapped.
O’Hare and Midway international airports in Chicago reported more than 850 cancellations, the AP reported, with rain and snow expected overnight into Monday.
Flooding continued in Hawaii, with outages and rescues
In Hawaii, rain continued falling on Sunday, and the AP reported that farmland and homes had been flooded, roads closed, and shelters opened. PowerOutage.us said almost 40,000 electric customers in Hawaii were without power by midday Sunday.
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said flash flooding had been a major problem in recent days in places such as Maui, Molokai and the Big Island, where rain had been falling from 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) an hour overnight. Some areas of Maui received more than 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a social media post late Saturday.
Bissen said: “We’re seeing flooding, landslides, sinkholes, debris and downed power lines across the county.” He added, “mahalo for continuing to look out for one another.” Video footage connected to his post showed washed out or collapsed roads, a car stuck by floodwaters, and raging waterways. Bissen said National Guard members and fire department workers made multiple floodwater rescues.
Homes collapsed as rain overwhelmed areas of Maui
The AP also described accounts from Maui residents of rapidly worsening conditions. Tom and Carrie Bashaw said they were unable to prevent part of their home in Maui’s Iao Valley from collapsing beneath rising waters, describing how the water’s force began overtaking nearby trees after Friday.
Tom Bashaw told HawaiiNewsNow that when they returned Saturday morning, “the whole backside of the house” was gone. Another Maui resident, Jesse Wald, who recorded video of a coastal road’s collapse Saturday, said other parts of the road had been flooded out by mud and sediment.
Wald said: “In the 20 years I’ve been here I’ve never seen this much rain.” He added: “I’m from Wisconsin and we get thunderstorms, you know pretty often in the summer, so it felt like a Wisconsin thunderstorm but times 10.”
Late Sunday, Maui County downgraded an evacuation notice and said crews were pumping water from retentions basins to keep them at safe levels.
Power outages and Nebraska wildfire response amid wind
The AP reported that power outages continued beyond Hawaii. It said more than 210,000 utility customers in six Great Lakes states were without electricity as of Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. Some of the outages began Friday when gusts in the region reached 85 mph (137 km).
In Nebraska, state officials said about 30 National Guard members were deployed to combat multiple wildfires across a broad swath of range and grassland. Officials said three of the largest wildfires had damaged more than 900 square miles (2,331 square kilometers) as of Saturday, and that 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 also issued a high-wind warning for most of Nebraska, with gusts of up to 60 mph (97 kph) possible amid falling snow. Roys said the high winds would affect a region stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Great Lakes and from Denver eastward to the Appalachian Mountains.
Monday’s storm threat: high winds and tornado risk farther east
Forecasters warned about a line of storms entering the eastern half of the country. The weather service said a line of severe storms with damaging winds would cross much of the Eastern U.S. by late Monday.
The storm line was expected to begin Sunday afternoon and cross the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys. The AP reported that the threat was expected to enter the Appalachians early Monday and move toward the East Coast, where the service said “severe thunderstorms with widespread damaging winds and several tornadoes” were expected Monday.
The greatest damaging winds Monday afternoon appeared most likely for a stretch from parts of South Carolina to Maryland, the AP reported. The service said the window could include Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, D.C., and that an increased but much lower risk stretched north to New York and south to Florida, with thunderstorms possible in New England.
Officials said schools in Raleigh and Chapel Hill would be closed Monday, and the North Carolina governor urged residents to enable emergency alerts on their phones ahead of expected wind gusts of 74 mph (119 kph).