A bone-numbing blast: Storm wallops central US with heavy snow, wind chills near 50 below
Updated 2:08 pm EST Feb. 22, 2022
A powerful storm continued to wreak havoc across the nation on Tuesday as winter refused to relinquish its icy grip on the U.S.
The storm walloped the Upper Midwest with snow and ice, creating dangerous travel conditions, closing scores of schools and causing a chain-reaction accident that injured at least six people in North Dakota.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for parts of the Dakotas on Tuesday. "Travel is discouraged," the weather service said. By Tuesday morning, over 20 inches of snow had fallen in Washburn, Wisconsin, just east of Duluth, Minnesota, AccuWeather said.
That same storm also ushered in bitterly cold temperatures across much of the central U.S. Wind chills approached 50 degrees below zero in some locations. "With wind chills this cold, frostbite could happen in minutes," the weather service warned.
WHAT IS WIND CHILL?: Understanding the wind chill index and how it's calculated
"Very cold air is expected for much of this week, with temperatures near record low
values and dangerously cold wind chills in the Plains," the weather service said.
Wind chill advisories extended as far south as northern Texas, where wind chill temperatures were forecast to dip below zero Tuesday night in Amarillo.
Severe weather threatens the South
On the warmer side of the storm, severe thunderstorms rattled portions of the South on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, including a reported tornado in Arkansas, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
The center warned that damaging thunderstorm gusts, a few tornadoes and isolated severe hail are all possible Tuesday from Arkansas to the Mid-South and lower Ohio Valley, and over parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee by Tuesday evening.
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The thunderstorms could also produce heavy, potentially flooding rains across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, the Weather Service said. "The associated heavy rain will create numerous areas of flash flooding. Furthermore, many streams may flood, potentially affecting larger rivers through Wednesday morning."
East is balmy; California sees snow and rain
And while the central U.S. shivers, temperatures will be 10 to 25 degrees above average over most of the East Coast over the next couple of days. Several locations could see record-breaking high temperatures from Tuesday into Wednesday morning, the weather service said.
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Meanwhile, in the West, a separate storm brought snow and rain to California on Tuesday, and forecasters warned that freezing temperatures will follow. That storm will move into the central U.S. by Wednesday and Thursday, spreading more snow and ice across the region.
The snow and rain is needed in California, where the wintry weather vital to the state’s water supply has been spotty after a very wet December.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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Originally Published 1:57 pm EST Feb. 22, 2022
**Updated 2:08 pm EST Feb. 22, 2022**