- A powerful winter storm hit the central and eastern U.S., disrupting travel.
- Blizzard conditions tornadoes and strong winds caused power outages and flight delays.
- Extreme temperature drops followed the storm affecting millions across affected regions.
WASHINGTON — A powerful winter storm swept across the central and eastern United States, knocking out power and snarling travel during one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season.
The wide-ranging storm brought blizzard conditions, strong winds, an ice storm 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.
Three semitrucks and at least 20 vehicles were involved in a major pileup on Interstate 75 in Detroit Monday morning. Travelers faced bursts of snowy conditions and strong winds as the winter storm swept into the metro area. No injuries have been reported, according to the Michigan State Police.
At least one person died in a traffic crash on Interstate 35 in north-central Iowa Sunday, Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Alex Dinkla said. No additional details about the incident were provided, but whiteout conditions forced the road to close from Ames, Iowa, to the Minnesota border Sunday into Monday afternoon and caused a 14-vehicle crash on the roadway on Sunday.
There have also 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.
Sunday and Monday were also expected to be two of the busiest air travel days of this holiday period, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
More than 9,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. on Monday have been delayed and about 850 were canceled after similar impacts Sunday, according to FlightAware. Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul are some of the major hubs that have been impacted by storms.
The storm's powerful winds and ice knocked out power to nearly 270,000 customers in the Great Lakes and Interior Northeast, most of them in Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
Parts of Michigan have received over 2 feet of snow: Marquette picked up 11.5 inches on Sunday alone, a new daily record, on its way to more than 27 inches of snow in total.
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
The storm's wintry and windy side spread toward the eastern Great Lakes and northern New England on Monday morning. Parts of northern New England and northern New York had ice accumulations up to 0.5 inches thick.
Strong winds and snow caused challenging travel conditions from Lower Michigan to western New York and northwest Pennsylvania.
High wind warnings were posted across some of these areas on Monday, including Cleveland and Buffalo, New York. Wind gusts up to 60 mph hit most areas Monday afternoon, but hurricane-force gusts in downtown Buffalo reached 79 mph. That reading marked the city's strongest gust in more than 45 years, according to the National Weather Service.
The winter storm has departed New England, but winds behind the system 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 U.S. will go from 20 to 30 degrees above average this weekend to 10 to 15 degrees below average by Tuesday.
Dangerous wind chills as low as minus 30 degrees across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota early Monday made 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.
Sunday also saw dramatic drops: 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 will abate, the reset to colder air will keep winter hazards in play as the holiday travel rush continues.
