Winter Storm Pummels Midwest, Heads East

Courtesy of USA Today: A furious winter storm that dumped freezing rain and a foot of snow on parts of Upper Midwest was bearing down on cities from Chicago to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, promising what National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley called “the biggest widespread storm of the winter.”

North and South Dakota and Minnesota took the brunt of the storm Monday. Several inches were already on the ground in Minneapolis early Tuesday, and KARE-TV meteorologist Sven Sundgaard said the city could see up to 9 inches before the snow ends Tuesday afternoon.

The weather service said Grand Forks, N.D., received 7 inches on Monday, a record for the date. Minot, N.D., not only got a foot of snow but also set a rainfall record, as did Williston. Williston also 6 inches of snow.

Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.

More than 1,370 flight flights were cancelled Tuesday at major airports from Chicago and Minneapolis to New York and Washington, according to flight-tracking firm FlightStats. Those cancellations come on top of 366 canceled across the USA Mondayy, bringing the two-day cancellation tally to about 1,700.

The Chicago area and other parts of northern Illinois were forecast to get 7 to 10 inches by Tuesday night. The weather service warned that the greatest impact in the Chicago area would be felt during the Tuesday evening rush hour.

“Everybody’s a bit surprised, but it’s good for us, we’ve got a lot of this stuff to move,” said Mike McIntosh, who works at Dressel’s Hardware in Oak Park.

On Wednesday, the storm will head east. The area most likely to receive a foot or more of snow is across the higher elevations of eastern West Virginia into western parts of Virginia, says AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. The snow could lead to power outages in portions of North Carolina, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

The storm should bring significant snow to Washington and Baltimore metro areas, along with coastal flooding along the East Coast later Wednesday into Thursday.

It will likely be the heaviest snowfall for Washington and Baltimore so far this season. Washington has seen only 1.5 inches of snow this winter, while Baltimore has picked up 4.8 inches.

The region’s three big airports – Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington international – are not especially delay-prone, but those conditions will likely create problems if the forecasts hold.

Category: General Update