Another Winter Storm Hits The Midwest

Another winter storm system blanketed most of the Plains and Upper Midwest with snow and ice, with most of the snowfall in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Hundreds of flights were canceled Sunday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, officials said.

School systems that weren't closed for Presidents Day (Monday) were closed because of the storm.

Interstates looked like ice rinks and officials warned people to stay put as winds whipped the snow and reduced visibility. The snow began falling Sunday morning and continued until past midnight into Monday, a federal holiday.

In downtown Minneapolis, inline skating events at the Metrodome was canceled Sunday because of travel conditions and heating applied to the roof to melt snow created uncomfortably warm conditions for skating, an official said.

Up to a foot of snow fell in South Dakota and around 10 inches in southwest North Dakota, weather officials said. Portions of Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin were plagued by rain and ice glazing the highways and making travel treacherous. The icy mix was expected to push north and east Monday across southern Michigan, northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, AccuWeather.com said.

Areas north of Chicago were expecting accumulating sleet and rain before it changed over to just rain, forecasters said.

The expected big snow failed to materialize in the Milwaukee area, which had more rain, sleet and freezing rain, making driving conditions sketchy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Snow, freezing rain, sleet, and ice were expected to affect the central and northern part of Wisconsin Monday as well.

Midwest Expecting Lots of Snow

If you are in the Midwestern part of the United States, you are currently experiencing the calm before the storm.  Heavy snow is expected throughout the Midwest this week.  And it will keep coming and coming.

The first of the snow is expected to arrive afternoon in the way of about a half an inch, according to the National Weather Service. Today’s high will be 25 degrees.

The snow is expected to continue tonight with overnight accumulations of 2 inches.

More snow is expected Tuesday with accumulation of around 4 inches.

Then the bulk of the storm will hit with about 9 inches of accumulation expected Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. We could see snow accumulation rates of 2 inches an hour. On top of the snow, expect some areas of blowing snow with  wind chill values as low as -10 degrees. A winter storm watch will be in effect from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon.

Blowing and drifting snow is expected on Wednesday. Then the temperatures plunge with Wednesday night low will be -9 degrees .



Northeast to Get More Snow on Friday

The snow will beging Friday morning.

The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings, watches and advisories for portions of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Vermont for Friday.

Forecasters project between two and four inches of snow across the greater New York City area, with heavier amounts of snow expected over eastern sections of Long Island.

The wintry weather comes as New York instituted a series of changes in the aftermath of the Christmas weekend storm that dumped several feet of snow on the region, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday.

John Doherty, the chief of the sanitatino department, has made management and personnel shake-ups in Brooklyn following sharp criticism for the city's slow reaction to the holiday blizzard.

That response has prompted an investigation into whether sanitation workers intentionally delayed clean-up efforts over frustrations of demotions and citywide budget cuts.