Life-threatening blizzard slams millions across Upper Midwest, as potentially historic snow freezes travel
A life-threatening situation is unfolding as a monstrous blizzard is rapidly intensifying and unleashing extreme feet of snow and vicious wind gusts throughout the Midwest and Great Lakes.
A life-threatening situation is unfolding as a monstrous blizzard is rapidly intensifying and unleashing feet of snow and vicious wind gusts throughout the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.
More than 129,000 customers were without power in Michigan Monday afternoon, with the greatest outages reported across Northern Michigan and beginning to mount across the Upper Peninsula.
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Snow started across portions of the Northern Tier and then charged east into the Great Lakes.
Blizzard Warnings are in effect Monday across southern Minnesota, Iowa and northwestern Illinois, as well as most of Wisconsin, including Milwaukee and Green Bay, and parts of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
Parts of Northern Michigan were also under an Ice Storm Warning through most of Monday morning.
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This is Milwaukee's first blizzard warning in 15 years and Milwaukee County has declared a Snow Emergency, closing all non-essential county facilities,
More than 2 feet of snow has fallen in Wisconsin and Michigan since Sunday, with potentially historic accumulations expected in the Upper Peninsula.
Widespread, life-threatening travel conditions are expected across the region through Monday night.
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Air travel ground to a halt across major Midwest hubs, with more than 140 flights canceled into or out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport by early Monday.
The major winter storm, combined with a sprawling East Coast severe weather system to cancel more than 2,600 flights nationwide.
This comes just days after a major windstorm blew through Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reactivated the state's Emergency Operations Center a little more than a week after a severe weather outbreak, including deadly tornadoes that tore through Three Rivers.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BLOWING, DRIFTING SNOW
Blizzard conditions were verified in Green Bay, Wisconsin, overnight, and the city picked up 17.1 inches of snow Sunday — its most snow in one day since Jan. 1, 1889.
Spalding, Michigan has recorded 26 inches of snow since Sunday.
Parts of Northern Michigan within the Ice Storm Warning have recorded more than .25 inches of ice accretion, heavy enough to take down trees and power lines.
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The center of the storm is expected to slowly move into southeastern Canada through the day, and blizzard conditions will gradually lift from west to east, beginning late Monday afternoon.
However, cold winds out of the northwest will quickly move in and trigger intense lake-effect snow across the Upper Peninsula and the shores of Northern Michigan.
All told, some isolated areas in the Upper Peninsula are on track to see nearly four feet of snow by the time the system departs, the FOX Forecast Center said.
Additionally, high winds will produce up to 20-foot waves along Lake Superior, which will cause beach erosion and lakeshore flooding.
Behind the system, colder air will settle in, meaning the vast majority of snow that falls will likely remain on the ground for at least several days.
Cold air surges back into the Plains and Midwest starting Monday, sending afternoon highs of 15 to 25 degrees below average from the Canadian border all the way to the Texas–Mexico border.
Highs will struggle to reach the teens and 20s in the Midwest, with 40s and 50s across the Mid-South.
By early Tuesday, bitter wind chills will drop into the negative single digits and teens in cities like Minneapolis and Green Bay, while places such as Oklahoma City and Atlanta see wind chills in the teens and 20s.
A few record lows are possible across parts of the Deep South.
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