A major winter storm will unfold over the northern part of the United States this week, bringing a mixed bag of precipitation that will be “extremely disruptive,” forecasters said.
The storm was taking shape in the West on Tuesday. Tens of millions of Americans were under winter weather alerts on Tuesday night in a nearly continuous stretch from California to Maine.
More than 170,000 electricity customers in California — more than half of them in the San Francisco Bay Area — had already lost power as midnight approached. The utility Pacific Gas & Electric said that winds were affecting electrical equipment. The National Weather Service office in San Francisco reported that powerful winds had downed trees and damaged roofs.
Snow began on Tuesday out West, where it fell at elevations as low as 500 feet in Northern and Central California. The extreme weather threat was expected to shift toward the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains, where many were under winter storm warnings or advisories late Tuesday and one to two feet of snow was expected in the mountains.
The heavy snow and strong winds that developed over the Northern Rockies on Tuesday will spread south and east, according tothe Weather Service. The weather system was expected to extend into the Plains by Tuesday evening, packing heavy snow, strong winds and freezing rain. The Weather Service warned of possible disruptions to power lines as a result.
The Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast are expected to get a taste of the wintry mix on Wednesday, when weather conditions are expected to worsen. Wind gusts greater than 30 miles per hour could cause blizzard conditions over portions of the Midwest, forecasters said.
More than eight inches of snow is likely in areas from South Dakota east through southern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and in parts of Michigan.
The Weather Service office in Billings, Mont., said that plenty of snow and high temperatures around 3 degrees Fahrenheit were expected on Wednesday. “Might be a good day to stay home,” the forecasters said. “Definitely not a day for travel or outdoor activities.”
Similar blustery conditions were also predicted for Salt Lake City on Tuesday, where the Weather Service office advised local residents to stay home or change their commute time. “Venture out only if you need to and stay safe,” they said.
“It’s not often we see the winter storm severity index in the ‘extreme’ category,” the Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, S.D., said. The state’s department of public safety urged residents to prepare before the weather worsened.
Source: The New York Times
