A second round of snow began to fall in Minnesota on Wednesday as forecasters warned of a major winter storm that could make travel dangerous for wide swaths of the nation.
The “twin cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul were forecast to get up to an additional 12 inches of snow from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service said, on top of the 5 inches that already fell.
“Minnesotans are no strangers to extreme weather, but this storm could break records,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement Wednesday.
More than 55 million people, from the Northern Plains to Boston and Maine, and along the western U.S. coast, were under winter weather warnings or advisories Wednesday night, according to the weather service.
Blizzard warnings were in place for another 2 million, and ice storm warnings affected 8 million.
In the Los Angeles area, blizzard warnings were in place for the mountains. The only other time that appears to have happened was in 1989, the weather service in Oxnard said.
A series of low pressure waves traversing an Arctic cold front was causing the heavy snow and blizzard conditions to the Plains and Midwest, the weather service said, with major disruptions to travel likely.
“Fortunately our plane got in, but it looked like there were 90 percent of the flights getting canceled,” said Ann Viksnins, who flew in to a surprisingly empty Minneapolis airport Wednesday. “It’s just really eerie here in the airport.”
Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport saw more than 400 cancellations Wednesday, the airport said.
Lt. Andrew Siebenborn with Sioux Falls, South Dakota, police joked to reporters that he made it “probably about 11 feet” to the end of his driveway before his squad car got stuck.
“We really aren’t even into the bad part of the storm that’s coming up, and we expect it to get a lot worse,” Siebenborn said Wednesday. He encouraged people to stay home and wait it out.
Around 8 ½ inches of snow had fallen at the city’s airport by 10 p.m. Wednesday, and the weather service expected the last round of snow to drop 1 inch an hour after midnight.
The Arizona Department of Transportation closed parts of at least eight interstates or state routes Wednesday because of the winter storm. Around 3 to 6 inches of snow fell in the Flagstaff area, with winds gusting at up to 50 mph, the weather service said.
The heavy snow risk in the western U.S. will be mainly in California Thursday and Friday due to a new storm, according to the weather service.
The blizzard warning in Southern California is for the mountains in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the weather service said, from 4 a.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday. The mountains could see 5 feet of snow, it said.
Minneapolis and St. Paul were under a winter storm warning until noon Thursday, and forecasters warned the toughest travel conditions were expected through Thursday morning.
Green Bay, Wisconsin, was on winter storm warning until 6 p.m. Thursday, and the warning for Bangor, Maine, was set to expire at 10 p.m.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
