(Sioux Falls) A huge storm that blew across the United States caused tornadoes that destroyed homes and injured several people in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, while much of the central United States States, stretching from the Rockies to the Midwest, prepared for blizzard conditions on Tuesday.
Blizzard warnings were in effect from Montana through western Nebraska and Colorado. The US National Weather Service has warned that parts of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska could receive up to 60 centimeters of snow. Ice and sleet were expected in the eastern Great Plains.
The storm system is expected to plague the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days. It could move into northeast and central Appalachia with snow and freezing rain by late Wednesday, meteorologists said. The threat of severe weather also continues Wednesday for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
In the south, a line of thunderstorms that moved through northern Texas and Oklahoma in the early morning brought tornadoes, damaging winds, hail and heavy rain, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw. Authorities on Tuesday reported dozens of homes and businesses damaged, and several people injured in suburbs and counties extending north from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The Weather Service was examining a dozen different areas in North Texas on Tuesday to determine if the damage was caused by high winds or tornadoes.
In suburban Fort Worth, photos sent by the North Richland Hills Police Department showed a roofless house, a tree split in two and an overturned vehicle in a parking lot. About 20 local homes and businesses were damaged, police said.
Nearby in the town of Grapevine, local police reported five confirmed injuries, but no fatalities and no life-threatening injuries.
More than 1,000 flights to and from airports in the region have been delayed and more than 100 others have been canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware.
Meanwhile, a tornado damaged the town of Wayne, Oklahoma early Tuesday morning. There were no deaths or injuries, authorities said. But they said the township, which is about 72 miles south of Oklahoma City, suffered extensive damage.
National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Speheger said the wind speed reached 179 to 211 km/h. The tornado likely remained on the ground for about two to four minutes, according to weather services.
The National Weather Service said 2.5 centimeters of ice could accumulate and the wind could blow more than 70 kilometers per hour in parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Power outages, damaged trees, broken branches and difficult road conditions threatened the area.
A blizzard warning is in effect for all of western Nebraska between Tuesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service predicts that 50 centimeters of snow could accumulate in the northwest of the state. Visibility will be nil due to winds over 80 km/h.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation has closed portions of Interstates 80 and 76 in the western part of the state due to accumulated snow and high winds. State police have been called to the scene of multiple crashes in the past few hours. Residents have been asked to stay at home.
In South Dakota, a 200-mile stretch of Highway 90, which runs through the west of the state, was closed Tuesday morning due to freezing rain, heavy snow and high winds. A closure of Highway 29 was also anticipated and secondary roads will probably be “impassable”, we warned.
A blizzard warning has also been issued for northern Minnesota, as some areas are expecting up to 60 cm of snow and gusts of up to 64 km/h. And in the south of the state, winds blowing up to 80 km/h had reduced visibility.
The National Weather Service is predicting a “prolonged event” in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area with snow, ice and rain that is expected to stretch through at least Friday evening. Minnesota was expecting a lull on Wednesday, followed by a second bout of snow.