The first significant snowstorm of the season blanketed parts of America’s Midwest with more than a foot of snow, creating hazardous travel conditions and flight delays.
Advertisement
Chicago’s O’Hare worldwide Airport had 5.4 inches of snow by daybreak Saturday, which forced the cancellation of about 250 flights in and out of the busy airport, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com.
At least 8 inches of snow were likely in much of the Upper Midwest during Saturday, the Weather Channel said.
In the southern Wisconsin town of Janesville, between 10 and 20 inches of snow had fallen by Saturday afternoon.
The National Weather Service said Grayslake, Illinois, recorded 17 inches, followed by 16.5 inches in Hawthorn Woods and 15.5 inches in Mundelein, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The first snowfall of the season brought amounts ranging from a few inches to 20 from South Dakota through MI earlier in the weekend.
The storm system is moving east and will last through Saturday evening when it tails through MI, according to Richard Otto, lead forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center.
Warm ground from what had been an exceptionally warm first half of November may take a small cut from total accumulations of snow, particularly on pavement.
The Detroit Free Press reported DTE Energy said the storm had knocked out power to about 50,000 people in the metropolitan Detroit area as of 9:30 p.m. Up to a foot of snow was expected in the region, which was under a winter storm warning.
However, the strength of the jet-stream disturbance, forcing a wave of low pressure along the frontal boundary, then strengthening it over the Great Lakes, will still squeeze out a swath of significant snow Friday and Saturday from the Plains to the Great Lakes. “Most people aren’t even fazed by it”.
Behind the front, temperatures fell sharply in Iowa and South Dakota. Fargo, North Dakota, could dip to 11 degrees by early Sunday.
Advertisement
Partly sunny but cold weather was forecast to prevail today in the Toledo area, with temperatures expected to rise only to around the freezing mark after falling into the 20s overnight. Colder with high temperatures in the lower 30s.
