A winter storm hit the southern United States on Tuesday with violent thunderstorms and tornado warnings that tore off roofs and scattered furniture, in addition to immobilizing cities in the Midwest under about fifteen centimeters of snow, blocking the people on the highways.
The severe storm, with winds approaching 90 mph and hail, moved across the Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia by sunrise Tuesday, accompanied by several reports of tornadoes confirmed by radar, the National Weather Service said. A gust of 170 km/h was recorded before dawn near the coast in Walton County, Florida.
“We still have potentially strong storms in this area through Tuesday morning and the potential for more severe weather and tornadoes,” warned meteorologist Lance Franck in Tallahassee.
Footage shot by local television in Panama City Beach, Florida, shows parts of roofs blown away, furniture, fences and debris strewn about, as well as a house that appeared to be tilted on its side, leaning on another House.
In Panama City, about 10 miles away, police early Tuesday asked residents to stay indoors and off the roads “unless absolutely necessary” as officers checked the damage. caused by storms, including power lines and uprooted trees. Bay County Public Information Officer Valerie Sale said significant damage was reported, including at an apartment complex, but there were no injuries or deaths.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office in Florida’s Panhandle region released photos of power lines draped across a road, damage to a gas station and large pieces of construction materials littering the area.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis activated his state’s National Guard Monday evening to prepare for any storm-related impacts.
Some 190,000 customers were without power in Florida, Alabama and Georgia as of Tuesday morning, according to the PowerOutage.us website.
Several centimeters of snow
In the Midwest, where a snowstorm began Monday, up to a foot of flakes could blanket a wide area stretching from southeastern Colorado to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, including western Kansas, l Eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
From there, the storm is expected to track east, bringing a combination of snow, rain and strong winds to the Northeast by Tuesday evening, along with concerns about flooding in areas such as New -England, parts of which received more than 30 cm of snow on Sunday.
About twenty centimeters of snow fell on Monday in the town of Athol, Kansas, in the north of the country. The Weather Service office in Lincoln, Nebraska, said additional snowfall of up to 10 centimeters was possible overnight, with gusts up to 40 mph.
Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska led to the closure of a long stretch of Interstate 80, while Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central town of Russell to the Colorado border due to dangerous driving conditions. Several vehicles slid off Highway 70 in the northeastern part of the state, authorities said.
In Nebraska, federal courts in Omaha and Lincoln closed Monday, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased the flow of water from a dam on the Missouri River on the Nebraska-Nebraska border. South Dakota, near Yankton, to reduce the risk of ice jams forming. Dubuque, on Iowa’s eastern border with Illinois, closed its offices Tuesday. Schools in Cedar Rapids, in eastern Iowa, also closed.
The weather has already affected campaigning for the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, where snow is expected to be followed by freezing temperatures that could dip to near -20C.
She forced former President Donald Trump’s campaign to cancel several appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, that had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on behalf of Mr. Trump on Monday.
Parts of northern Missouri prepared for up to a foot of snow as the system moved east. Kansas City officials announced that City Hall would be closed Tuesday and municipal courts would operate remotely.
Madison, Wisconsin, was under a winter storm warning through early Wednesday, with up to 10 inches of snow and 40 mph winds. Municipal authorities have canceled garbage collection to prevent residents from placing their trash cans along the sidewalks, which would complicate the task of snow plows.
Northwest Illinois was also under a winter storm warning, with forecasts calling for 8 to 12 inches of snow by early Wednesday. The Chicago area and Gary, Indiana, are under a winter storm warning, with forecasts calling for up to 6 inches of snow and gusts of up to 30 mph. Snowfall could exceed one centimeter per hour on Tuesday, according to the weather service.
Snowfall could exceed 2.5 cm per hour on Tuesday, according to the weather service.
Disturbances extended to southern Oklahoma, where emergency officials in Cimmaron County asked citizens to stay home. More than a dozen motorists remained stranded Monday afternoon as high winds and blizzard conditions led to near-zero visibility.
Another storm is on the way and will affect the Pacific Northwest up to the northern Rockies. Blizzard warnings were issued for much of the Cascade and Olympic ranges in Washington and Oregon.