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What to know about the U.S. winter weather
- An intense blast of cold weather, a "bomb cyclone" is expected across the United States into the weekend and early next week.
- Nearly every state across the lower 48 had some form of weather warning today. By late tonight high wind warnings or wind advisories affected around 120 million people, and winter storm warnings or advisories affected around 48 million. More than 5 million were under blizzard warnings.
- At least two deaths have been connected to the severe weather.
- This marks the first significant Arctic outbreak of the winter and is expected to move from the northern Rockies and Plains farther south and east through the Midwest.
- By tomorrow morning, temperatures in the minus 20s Fahrenheit, minus 30s and as low as minus 40 are forecast for the northern Plains. Some areas could see records broken.
- Temperatures for the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses Monday are set to be the coldest in modern history, with a forecast high of around 0 degrees in Des Moines.
- A national overnight low of minus 23 was recorded near Polebridge, Montana, around 1 a.m. ET today.
Minus 43 degrees recorded in Montana
The lowest temperature recorded Friday was minus 43 degrees at an area 4 miles west-northwest of Raynesford, Montana, according to the National Weather Service.
In stark contrast, it was 89 in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Rescuers recover man's body from avalanche zone in Idaho
The body of a man believed to have been killed in yesterday's Idaho avalanche was recovered by rescuers this afternoon and identified, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The man, in a group of three skiers caught in the avalanche near Steven’s Peak yesterday afternoon, was identified today as Corey J. Zalewski, it said. The two others were located by deputies after a Garmin GPS device alerted authorities they were in trouble, the office said.
Those two survived and were recovering, it said. Deputies and members of the U.S. Air Force, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Silver Valley Search and Rescue, and the Silver Mountain Ski Patrol were part of the search.
Steven's Peak reaches 7,000 feet near Idaho's border with Montana. It's popular with hikers, skiers and climbers.
A 66-year-old man died in an avalanche in Tahoe, California, on Wednesday.
Storms derail travel plans coast to coast
Two powerful winter storms are barreling across the country causing hundreds of flight cancellations, creating havoc on highways and burying parts of the Midwest under inches of snow.
Man dies after truck goes through ice on Minnesota lake
An 80-year-old man died this morning in Minnesota when his truck went through the ice on Mille Lacs Lake, the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office said.
A 911 caller said he saw an area on the lake where the truck had gone through the ice and found an adult male in the water nearby wearing a floatation device, officials said. The caller said he was able to recover the man and bring him to shore.
The man, who has been identified as Richard Francis Gadbois of Isle, Minn., was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Mille Lacs Lake is about 100 miles north of Minneapolis.
Second avalanche at Lake Tahoe ski resort
The day after an avalanche claimed the life of a skier at Palisades Tahoe in Olympic Valley, Calif., a second avalanche rocked the resort.
A second avalanche hit the Wolverine Bowl section of Alpine Meadows about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, resort spokesperson Patrick Lacey said.
No guests or employees were impacted or injured, but the resort conducted searches of the mountain to be sure, Lacey said. Once the area was cleared, the lift was reopened for the day.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issues state of emergency
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued a state of emergency in anticipation of the severe weather expected to hit the state over the weekend and into next week.
The Southern state is expecting a "wintry mix" in some areas and wind chills in the teens to near freezing for central and northern Louisiana, according to a statement from Landry's office.
“We are encouraging everyone to prepare for these conditions and heed the advice of your local officials,” Landry said. “Road crews are on standby in an attempt to keep our roads open.”
Safety first: Chiefs tell fans to bring blankets, heated clothes to below freezing game
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Feels-like temperatures in the area aren’t expected to climb above zero until Wednesday at the earliest, and some of the fiercest weather is expected tomorrow — the day of the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.
The high for the day is expected to only be 5 degrees, and it’ll be colder than that during the night game.
The home team wants to keep fans as safe and comfortable as possible and announced some weather accommodations today.
- Fans will be allowed to bring in blankets, cardboard (to stand on) and portable chargers to power heated apparel.
- Warming stations will be set up both inside and outside the stadium.
- Designated drivers will be given hot coffee or hot chocolate to help stave off the bone-chilling weather.
Major flight cancelations and delays at Chicago's O'Hare
The most flight cancelations in the world were seen today out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
More than 420 (41%) flights originating at the airport were canceled and 280 (27%) were delayed, according to the site. Into O’Hare, 394 (38%) flights were canceled and 224 (21%) were delayed.
Nearby Elgin, Ill., was covered in more than 8 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service, and that snow plus strong winds and freezing temperatures will continue throughout the weekend.
Because of the storms, O'Hare at 3 p.m. local time said it had proactively canceled 850 flights and delays were averaging 25 minutes.
Wisconsin man dies while clearing drive near Milwaukee
A 69-year-old man was found unresponsive after clearing his driveway with a snow blower in Franklin, Wisc., near Milwaukee and was pronounced dead on scene shortly thereafter.
The Milwaukee Medical Examiner's office said it will investigate the incident as a weather-related death but will not conduct an autopsy.
Pritzker asks Abbott to hold off on bussing migrants to 'save lives' during cold
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop bussing migrants to Illinois during the extreme cold snap.
Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants from their arrival point in Texas to major U.S. cities, including Chicago, for months. But as storms dump feet of snow and bring negative windchills to the Midwest, Prizker is asking Abbott to pause.
"You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow — to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here," Pritzker wrote in a letter to Abbott.
He continued: "Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals. Hundreds of children’s and families’ health and survival are at risk due to your actions."
Pritzker acknowledged that there should be a bipartisan congressional agreement on a way forward in the current migrant crisis.
"But right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival," Pritzker said in the letter. "I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now."