Northern Plains and Northern California Risks for Tropical Storms, Tornadoes, Winds, Hail and Flash Flooding in the MS River Valley and the Florida Panhandle

The Mississippi River Valley area, where excessive rain is possible Wednesday, is in need of much-needed relief as the storm walloping some areas with severe weather.

The National Weather Service office in North Dakota said a winter storm is expected to impact the Northern Plains on Monday through Thursday. Travel is expected to be difficult due to snow, reduced visibility, and drifting snow.

“A plethora of hazards are forecast, with heavy rain and strong winds expected to be the most widespread impact. Widespread rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches are anticipated, with locally higher amounts throughout the coastal ranges and over northern California,” the National Weather Service says.

California’s susceptibility to wind will be a concern with gusts of up to 40 mph in the valleys, 50 mph for coastal areas and possibly even more in exposed headlands, mountaintops and ridges.

There is a good chance of snow accumulating in the northern Plains and Midwest through Friday of next week.

“Low visibility will create even more dangerous travel conditions on top of snow covered roadways,” the NWS says. “Additionally, the strong winds could lead to potential power outages from the Midwest to the Northeast.”

Matthew said tornadoes in December are relatively uncommon when compared to the spring, but they are more likely to occur across parts of the Southeast and Lower Mississippi Valley.

Farther south, tornadoes, strong winds, hail and flash flooding were expected Tuesday with eastern Texas, much of Louisiana and western Mississippi at greatest risk for severe storms. The severe weather threat continues into Wednesday for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

As the event approaches, the details regarding the areas most at risk from tornadoes will become clearer.

Snowfall on Twin Bridges, Tahoe-Donner, Tahoe Lake and Palsades Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range during the December Snowfall

In California, 48 inches of snow fell in Twin Bridges in a 48-hour period, 46 inches fell in Tahoe-Donner, 45 inches in Donner Peak and 44 inches at Palsades Tahoe Ski Base.

There are winter storm warnings in place for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, where an additional foot of snow could fall before 4 a.m.

A 200-mile (322-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 90 across western South Dakota was closed Tuesday morning due to “freezing rain, heavy snow, and high winds,” the state’s Department of Transportation said. I 29 was expected to close and secondary highways will become unreliable according to the department.

The snow is about two-thirds of normal and it is more than double what the National Weather Service would have expected in December.

It looks like Christmas out here. It stuck to everything, even though it did not have a lot of wind. It is like a picture postcard.

The snow totals so far are impressive, butDeutschendorf is cautiously optimistic that the precipitation will end the state’s drought.

The ski resort posted photos of thick snow on its website on Sunday, and said they were “buried.”

It is definitely a storm to remember. We have now gotten 7.5 feet of snow. Plus, in just 24 hours from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, we received more than 35 inches of snow — the 6th largest snowfall total in 24 hours that we have on record,” resort operators wrote.

An EF 3 tornado destroys buildings and homes in Farmerville, Louisiana, claimed three lives in the first day of deadly tornadoes

The office of the National Weather Service said travel through the area is almost impossible on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The National Weather Service estimated that much of the nation’s 330 million residents were under some sort of winter weather alert on Thursday — a who’s who of winter maladies from blizzards, snow squalls and ice storms to high winds, wind chill and hard freezes.

The recent snowstorms in the city have been described as historic by a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

These areas need the moisture and have seen great relief to drought conditions in the past week. Tennessee went from being at less than half of the state under water to being at 46% this week.

The tornado caused no deaths, according to the sheriff’s captain. But as authorities began assessing the damage to the town of Wayne on Tuesday morning, it was clear the damage was widespread.

The National Weather Service says there was an EF 3 tornado with 140 mph winds that traveled through Farmerville, Louisiana. The tornado destroyed parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, according to a Farmerville Police Detective.

Dozens of tornadoes have been reported across ten states since Tuesday. The deadly storms claimed the lives of three people in Louisiana.

The Twin Cities of Dallas-Fort Worth, Fla., During the First Superstorms of the Cold War, FlightAware and the Grapevine Public Works District

“There’s very little travel going on right now at Flying J,” said a manager at the truck stop. He said he got to work before the roads were closed, but likely won’t be able to get back home Tuesday. “I can see to the first poles outside the doors, but I can’t see the rest of the lot right outside. I’ll probably just get a motel room here tonight.”

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety tweeted Monday: “This is a ‘we are not kidding’ kind of storm.” People were told to stay home and stock up on essentials.

“It will be a busy week while this system moves across the country,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s headquarters in Maryland.

A tour bus crashed in Utah on Monday as the region was blanketed in snow. The bus flipped onto its side in Tremonton after the driver lost control while switching lanes, the state’s Highway Patrol said in a statement. There were 23 passengers injured, according to the Highway Patrol.

Several people were injured and dozens of homes and businesses damaged by the line of thunderstorms, which was centered north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. More than 1,000 flights into and out of area airports were delayed, and over 100 were canceled, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

A boy was found dead in a wooded area of a nearby farm, which had been destroyed by a tornado, the Caddo Sheriff’s Office said.

A possible tornado blew the roof off the city’s service center — a municipal facility — and left pieces of the roof hanging from powerlines, said Trent Kelley, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation.

Photos sent by the city showed downed power lines on rain-soaked streets, as well as toppled trees, damaged buildings and a semitrailer that appeared to have been tossed around a parking lot.

In Colorado, all roads were closed in the northeast quadrant of the state. The weather could kill livestock in the region. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Representative Jim Santomaso said that extreme winds can push livestock through fences.

Wintry precipitation will come in several waves across the region through Wednesday, and while there may be breaks in the active weather, roads will remain slick throughout the event as temperatures stay cold.

Nor’Easter conditions have been brought by the monster storm that walloped a lot of the US this week.

The Great Midwest Weather Storm of September 14, 2015: State and Local Pedestrians warned against Unintentional Travel in the Context of Public Works Laws

Hochul said at a news conference that the event was life threatening. “Protect yourselves, protect your families. You know the roads are safe if you travel until they are open.

“We urge everyone in the impacted regions to avoid unnecessary travel tonight and tomorrow,” Hochul said in a Thursday statement. “Work from home if possible, stay off the roads, and make sure you and your loved ones remain vigilant.”

In neighboring Pennsylvania, state transportation officials implored drivers to avoid unnecessary travel due to the low visibility caused by wind and heavy snow.

Throughout the week, a big winter storm has blanketed many parts of the US with dangerously low temperatures and wind chills, causing power failures and thousands of canceled flights.

Additionally, strong winds may knock out power lines in the Midwest, especially in areas where heavy snow fell last week and is already weighing down tree branches. Millions will find a way to stay warm as the temperature plummets.

Icing up to two-tenths of an inch could be seen in Louisville, Kentucky, while Charleston, West Virginia, can see sleet up to an inch and ice up to a tenth of an inch.

Powerful winds blew through the Upper Midwest causing power lines to fall and leaving thousands without proper heating.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Nikolus Little, were killed Tuesday when a tornado struck Caddo Parish and destroyed their home, local officials said.

Cold Weather Predictions for Chicago During the Mid-Asymptotic Low-Phase Winter Equilibria

While southern cities will not be used to wintry conditions this holiday season, they will get a taste of it when temperatures plummet starting on Wednesday.

The Weather forecasting center said that wind chill values could be as low as 55 degrees below zero in some areas by the end of the week.

The winter weather in the Kansas City area brought an insignificant amount of snow. The homeless services of the city were expected to suffer, as temperatures were predicted to remain below freezing for days.

The NWS says that there is a risk of frostbite for those trying to brave the cold. It could get as cold as negative 23 degrees in some parts of the US this week.

The Cascades mountains in Washington state are likely to see the heaviest snowfall on Tuesday, but nearby lowlands in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming could see a foot of snow, according to the NWS. The region could see another blast of snow and ice on Thursday.

“The bottom line is travel will be very dangerous and could be LIFE-THREATENING later this week so be prepared to alter travel plans now!” the local weather service office said.

Chicago is forecast to be one of the hardest hit cities, where a winter storm watch is in effect starting Thursday night through Friday evening. Travel could be cut off for many if the holiday is delayed because of the weather.

In Texas, where the power grid was overwhelmed during a winter storm in 2021, officials said that they expected it to hold up despite the lack of precipitation.

However, water pipes will be at risk of bursting, the weather service said. A wind chill watch for Amarillo, Texas, is in effect from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon.

The weather service in Fort Worth says that outdoor pipes are at risk due to cold and windy weather late this week. Make sure to cover pipes and faucets.

The low-pressure system is forecast to move farther away into Canada, while another system quickly across the northern US into Monday, bringing snow from the northern Plains through the Midwest.

The incoming arctic front will then cross over the northern Rockies, Great Basin and Northern Plains regions, sending temperatures plummeting as low as minus 30 degrees and winds gusting as fast as 60 mph.

A blast of icy air from Canada has been disrupting holiday travel plans as it has left power outages, canceled flights and hazardous roads in its wake.

More than 12,000 homes and businesses in Erie County were without power Sunday night and many will not have service until Tuesday.

Predictions for the Difficult Weather Conditions across the United States Wednesday and Monday, and their Implications for Outdoor Safety and Health

Those venturing outside should dress in layers, cover their skin and change into dry clothing as soon as possible. But, experts say, the best prevention by far is simply to stay indoors.

The wind chill is expected to be around minus 25 as the temperature is predicted to be 10 degrees below zero by sunrise. Tomorrow’s high- temperature will likely not make the temperature go above zero degrees.

The cold temperatures combined with dangerous wind chills will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers who become stranded, people who work outside, livestock and pets, according to the National Weather Service.

“Overall, concern continues to increase in the quick development of dangerous conditions Thursday afternoon with potentially significant impacts to the evening peak travel window,” warned the weather service office in Chicago.

Snow could fall as far south as Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee and even Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday. Nashville is predicted to get an inch of snow, but it is not expected to accumulate.

As it treks east across the country, the storm is expected to become a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly strengthening storm which drops 24 millibars of pressure within 24 hours. The storm was predicted to have the same pressure as a Category 2 storm as it moved into the Great Lakes.

The storm is expected to be strong enough to create a Category 3 Hurricane as it travels to the Great Lakes, according to the weather service.

Weather Service Reports of the South’s First Snow-Hole Storm and Associated High-Temperature Winds on Thursday and Sunday

“This is a case in which snow totals may not tell the whole story. Poor visibility and slick spots can be caused by even small snow amounts, combined with strong wind gusts and frigid temperatures. The sudden arrival of these conditions can increase the danger,” the weather service explained.

Governors in at least 13 states, including Georgia and North Carolina in the South, have implemented emergency measures to respond to the storm. National Guard units have been activated as a result of several state of emergency Declarations.

The declaration will help “ensure that essential supplies, especially propane can be delivered for both commercial and residential needs,” the governor told reporters.

There will be wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph on Friday and there will be wind chills of minus 10 to minus 26 degrees on Saturday. Beshear said residents needed to stay off the roads and have a backup heat source.

Jackson and Birmingham will both spend more than 80 hours below freezing between Friday and Monday. Houston could sit below freezing for 46 hours between Thursday and Saturday.

The Denver Airport’s Winter Storm Holiday Event: What the City’s Public Utility Commission Expected to Learn in the Next Three Months

President Biden said in front of a national map of wind chill forecasts that this is a very serious weather alert. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is serious stuff.”

“The grid is ready and reliable,” said Peter Lake, chairman of the state’s Public Utility Commission, in a Wednesday news conference. “We expect to have sufficient generation to handle demand in this entire winter weather event.”

The temperature at Denver International Airport was minus 24 degrees, which was the lowest recorded since 1990. At the airport, over 500 flights had been canceled as of Thursday morning, more than a quarter of which were departures and arrivals. Nearly 480 more were delayed.

The city has two major airports, O’Hare and Midway, which both serve as hub airports for major airlines.

In addition to snow removal equipment, liquid deicer for runways and taxiways, and salt, these people will have at their disposal a lot of other resources.

Several area shelters had added beds this week; still, many reported being at or near capacity. Some people hid on the city’s streetcar after crews spent the night removing the route and platforms.

The library is not open. Pete, who refused to give his last name, said that he would likely get kicked out of his house, if he went into a parking garage. There’s not much you can do.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1144970060/winter-storm-holiday-travel

Weather-Related Auto Collisions in Montana, and One Person Died on an Icy Road in Brush Creek, Kansas City

“Even though this is kind of a worse winter than we’ve seen in the last few years, it’s nothing new to Montana. We know how to get through this because we’ve been running cattle for a long time.

The forecast called for the high to be minus 13 degrees and Hank said he would work through the cold to get hay for his cattle.

Additional reporting by NPR’s David Schaper in Chicago, Montana Public Radio’s John Hooks in Butte, KCUR’s Savannah Hawley-Bates in Kansas City and NPR’s Ivy Winfrey in Washington, D.C.

All modes of travel – planes, trains and automobiles – were being disrupted: There were hundreds of miles of road closures and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. The Long Island Rail Road Branch in New York was temporarily closed due to flooding.

“Christmas is canceled,” said Mick Saunders, a Buffalo, New York, resident who was two hours into blizzard conditions that are expected to last through Sunday morning. “All family and friends agreed it’s safer this way.”

• Ohio: Nine people have died as a result of weather-related auto crashes, including four in a Saturday morning crash on Interstate 75, when a semi tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with an SUV and a pickup, authorities said.

The Kansas City Police Department said one person died when their Dodge Caravan lost control on an icy road. Police said the Dodge went down the embankment, over the retaining wall, and then went upside down in Brush Creek.

The Big Break: Is It Raining Like a Kitchen Sink Storm? Temperatures and Snow Forecasts in Florida during the Black Hole Equilibrium

The National Weather Service said that the watch warning graphic depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings ever.

“I called it a kitchen sink storm because it is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink,” Hochul said at a press conference Friday afternoon. “We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that mother nature could wallop at us this weekend.”

For Brian Trzeciak, the storm was “living up to the warnings” at his home in Hamburg, New York. Buffalo’s airport, just to the north, reported zero visibility shortly after noon on Friday.

“My mother lives about 30 minutes away and so does my sister and her family, in the other direction,” he said. We usually get together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but we are all hunkering down in our homes until Monday.

On Christmas Day, the cold will be very much present in a lot of Florida. It will be the lowest Christmas Day temperature in 33 years for Miami, West Palm Beach, and other areas.

There were nearly 5,000 canceled Friday flights as of 7:30 p.m.

• It will remain very cold: Friday will bring record-low temperatures in large swaths of the US, including from the Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and stretching across large sections of the east from the Southeast, through the Southern to Central Appalachians and into the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service.

• Whiteout conditions: Blizzard conditions may exist even if snowfall stops, because high winds can pick up snow already on the ground and cause low visibility.

The ice caused the closure of runways at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where nearly half of flights going into and out of the airport were canceled, according to FlightAware. Further, all express services for Sound Transit, a regional transportation network in the Seattle metro area, were suspended Friday due to the icy conditions.

Winter Storm Traveling with Dangerous Conditions: The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Victims of Storm-Driven Power Outage (WPLN)

There have been at least six deaths in vehicle crashes, with at least four killed in a pileup of 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike.

WPLN reported that the Tennessee Valley Authority asked local utilities to cut their electricity use as plunging temperatures put pressure on a power grid not accustomed to this cold. Customers in Nashville will experience 10-minute outages every few hours, until the power load stabilizes.

The power being restored in weather like this is a big challenge, according to Scott Aaronson, the vice president of security and preparedness.

“Sometimes accessing these areas can be really challenging with downed power lines, with downed trees, with very icy roads. That’s right. Crews cannot go up in bucket trucks if the wind is higher than 35 miles an hour,” Aaronson said. “And so those combination of things will limit the ability of crews to get out there and get the power back on.”

Flooding along the New Jersey coast was as high as 9 feet due to heavy rains and high winds. Along the Hudson River, there were interior locations that were flooded.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/24/1145419116/winter-storm-travel-power-outage-dangerous-conditions

The New York City Christmas Eve Snowmass and its Impact on Central Park, Erie County, and the State of New York During a Warm Blizzard

“So that, unfortunately, really affects anyone who’s gotten a connecting flight, and we’re going to see a lot of people missing connecting flights with these long delays,” Bangs said.

New York City saw record cold temperatures on Christmas Eve at several locations, including its JFK and LaGuardia airports. According to the National Weather Service, the high at Central Park was 15 degrees on December 24th, marking the second-coldest December in at least 150 years.

Since the brutal weather’s arrival, multiple storm-related deaths have been reported across several states. In addition to the deaths in New York, the fatalities include:

A power grid operator for at least 13 states in the country’s eastern half asked customers to conserve power and set thermostats lower than usual from early Saturday to 10 a.m. on Sunday because usage was straining capacity.

PJM Interconnection serves over 65 million people in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The US Department of Energy declared an emergency Friday because of a shortage of electricity in Texas.

The cold weather is making it difficult to repair the large water main break which has caused a loss of water pressure in the city.

“We are grateful to the crews who are braving these frigid temperatures on this Christmas Eve night, while working to restore pressure to residents. Their sacrifice does not go unnoticed and is appreciated not only by this administration, but also by every resident who is affected,” the release stated.

In New York’s Erie County – which is seeing blistering blizzard conditions – about 500 motorists found themselves stranded in their vehicles Friday night into Saturday morning, despite a county driving ban put in place during the storm, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

National Guard troops were called in to help “rescue people that are stuck in vehicles,” and to give rides to medical workers so they could relieve colleagues who had been working at hospitals for more than a day, Poloncarz said.

Sliding Cars, Walking In Staircases, and Walkin’ Around the Corners: Emergency Response from Erie County, New York

In Seattle, Washington, online videos have documented cars sliding on the icy roads and bumping into each and residents slipping as they walked on sidewalks, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.

Hochul told reporters Saturday that he would request a federal declaration of emergency in order to seek reimbursements for overtime and mutual aid from other parts of the state. They have deployed individuals and utility crews come to make sure we have all the vehicles we need.

Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said during a news conference on Sunday that rescuers were being rescued. Many of New York’s weather-related fatalities were in Erie County, where some people were found dead in cars and on the street in snowbanks, he said.

The deaths of two people in Buffalo are storm related because people were not able to get to medics for care during the storm.

The Colorado Springs Police Department reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, including a man found near a transformer and a homeless man in an alleyway.

The Great Lakes snows will gradually become less intense, but the air in the east will be slow to moderate.

The dangerous conditions that have been felt across the eastern two-thirds of the nation will slowly moderate on Monday, but will persist on Christmas Day.

Lake-effect snows will continue to make for hazardous travel conditions for the next couple of days and conditions are expected to slowly improve over the week.

By Christmas night into Monday, another low pressure system coming from the Pacific will deliver the next surge of moisture toward the Pacific Northwest and then into northern California, according to the Weather Service.

The New York Locksmith Store, Bus Stops, and Emergency Plows Go Wild: Christmas Day Snowfalls in Buffalo, Jamestown and Watertown

As a massive winter storm continues to blast much of the US with brutal winter weather – leading to at least 37 deaths nationwide – parts of western New York have been buried by up to 43 inches of snow, leaving vehicles stuck and power out for thousands during the Christmas weekend.

As rescue crews and hundreds of plow drivers fanned out on Christmas Day, even emergency and recovery vehicles sent out to help have gotten stuck in the snow. Several ambulances had to be abandoned on Sunday.

Hochul said that the driving ban was still in effect because it was a very dangerous life-threatening situation.

“Our state and county plows have been out there, nonstop, giving up time and putting themselves in danger, driving through blinding snowstorms to clear the roads,” Hochul said.

Think of looking just a few feet in front of you at a sheet of white for more than 24 hours in a row. He said that it was like that outside during the worst conditions. They were stuck in the snow and no one could see where they were going. Nobody had any idea what was happening.”

While abandoned vehicles pepper the snow-covered roadways – with hundreds of cars still along the streets of Buffalo – conditions are also difficult inside homes.

Some residents have remained in their homes for the last 56 hours, some without power in the freezing cold, Hochul said during the press conference. This is not due to a lack of resources, the governor said, but rather a mobility and access challenge faced by utility companies.

Winter storm warnings remain in effect in New York for Buffalo, Jamestown and Watertown and will expire throughout the following couple of days. There could be more than 6 inches of snow in Buffalo and another 3 feet in Watertown. The winds could go as high as 40 mph.

The rest of the country will remain in a deep freeze through Monday, before a slight shift in the weather pattern occurs on Tuesday.

Buffalo Mayor James Brown and Selma (Ala.) Mayor James Perkins Jr. announced a state of emergency for the Jackson water treatment plant

Buffalo Mayor Brown told Morning Edition that emergency responders had gone “car by car” to save hundreds of stranded motorists.

“This has been called a generational storm — a once-in-a-generation storm,” Brown said. “It’s unlike anything that even the city of Buffalo is used to getting.”

“That number is now below 10,000, and we will continue to work aggressively and strategically with National Grid all day today to continue to reduce that number and get everyone’s power restored,” he added, referring to the local utility.

Communities from coast to coast have lost power over the course of the week, but the worst of rolling blackouts appeared to have subsided. PJM said on Sunday that utilities could meet the day’s demand after initially asking many customers to conserve energy.

The situation in Jackson was not as dire as August, when many of the capital’s 150,000 people lost running water after flooding exacerbated longstanding problems in one of the capital city’s two water treatment plants. They had to wait in lines to drink, cook, bathe, and flush toilets.

They also are happening in Shreveport, La., where some residents had no water Monday. In Selma, Ala., the mayor declared a state of emergency because they city worried it would run out of water. Workers at a food bank in Greenville, S.C., opened their doors to a rush of water and were trying to save $1 million in food. Police departments around Atlanta said their 911 systems were being overwhelmed by unnecessary emergency calls about broken pipes.

Water expands when it freezes, bursting pipes that aren’t protected. Then when the temperature rises, those broken pipes start leaking hundreds or thousands of gallons of water.

When many businesses are closed over the holiday weekend, those leaks can go undetected for days.

“We continue to struggle to return pressure to the water system. Despite the plant efforts, the pressure isn’t increasing even though we’re pumping significant amounts of water in. The issue has to be significant leaks in the system that we have yet to identify,” Jackson officials said in a statement.

In Selma, Mayor James Perkins Jr. issued an emergency order Christmas Day asking owners to go to their businesses and check for leaks before the city ran out of water.

Perkins said that crews in the 18,000 person city were able to find and fix enough leaks to equalize the amount of water coming into and out of the system. But there was a major leak that hasn’t yet been found and two more nights that are forecast to be below freezing, the mayor said.

Problems were also being caused by broken pipes. A massive leak was reported at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery on Christmas Eve, according to WFSA-TV.

Several inches of water rushed out when employees at the Harvest Hope Food Bank opened the building on Monday. Broken pipes were spraying water and workers turned away dozens of needy people, the food bank said.

Over 25 million people are under some sort of severe weather threat in the South, with the risk of severe storms stretching from the Florida Panhandle into far southeast Alabama and parts of Georgia, and along the East Coast into southeastern Virginia.

A tornado watch is in effect for much of western and southern Alabama until 4 a.m. CST and for parts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama until noon eastern.

The storm has rained on the South, with rain totals between 2 and 4 inches. Some areas across the Mississippi and Ohio River Valley received up to 6 inches, and isolated areas across eastern Arkansas received 10 inches.

In Tennessee, Memphis and Jackson both saw record-breaking rainfall Tuesday. The previous daily record of 2.13 inches was shattered by 3.84 inches. Jackson beat a previous daily record on Tuesday with 2.48 inches.

An extremely warm and moist air mass over the East Coast and Southeast helped fuel the severe weather outbreak. The temperature in Washington D.C. hit 69 degrees on Tuesday, breaking a daily high temperature record that had been in place for over thirty years.

Icing and Power Outages in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson Parish, Arkansas, after a Drastic Boundary Fallout in Decaturation

Damage was also reported in Jessieville, Arkansas, where multiple buildings of a school sustained damage as trees and powerlines toppled, alogn with several homes in the area, according to the Garland County Sheriff’s Office.

The school was in session at the time, but students have been accounted for and no injury has been reported, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

“The best thing is my husband and I are alive. Material things can be replaced but our lives cannot, and we just thank God that we are here,” homeowner Sylvia Hester told the station, standing alongside her husband next to their damaged home of two decades.

There were reports of damage to transmission highline towers in northern Louisiana. One of the towers was knocked over and several others are damaged, according to the National Weather Service in Shreveport.

In Jackson Parish, Louisiana, residents were told to stay off the roads Monday as the severe weather toppled trees and powerlines, and covered roadways with water.

The Weather Service said that the state recently received a lot of rain that left soils susceptible to flooding and was a big problem for the area.

An ice storm warning goes into effect Monday evening for Memphis and surrounding areas in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. The warning is expected to last through Wednesday afternoon and travel could be “nearly impossible,” the warning states

Significant icing of about half of an inch is expected on roads in Austin, San Angelo and Dallas while San Antonio may see up to a tenth of an inch of ice.

In Oklahoma, deteriorating travel conditions were expected to begin Monday morning as sleet and freezing rain moved into the area, according to the weather service office in Norman.

The Lincoln weather service warned of the potential for slick roads and sidewalks as freezing precipitation spread into central Illinois. If you are heading out tonight, use caution.

It’s not known what caused the collision, but excessive blowing snow and winds kept visibility down when there was no new snow. Areas along the I-80 saw between 1 and 5 inches of snow, with isolated areas seeing even higher totals.

“In addition to potentially hazardous travel conditions, this amount of ice will lead to tree damage and power outages across the hardest-hit regions,” the National Weather Service warned in its forecast Monday.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Winter Icy Storms in Little Rock, Arkansas, During the Governor’s Emergency Order

Amid such conditions, the governor has requested the state’s emergency management division to increase its resources so it can be ready to respond through Thursday.

As ice began forming on roads in Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor declared a state of emergency Monday and activated the winter weather support teams of the state’s National Guard to be prepared in helping police in their response to the storm.

“I encourage Arkansans who are experiencing winter weather to avoid travel if possible and heed the warnings of local officials,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter.

According to the emergency order, $250,000 was directed to the head of the state’s Division of Emergency Management to provide funding for program and administrative costs.

Dave Parker said that the real enemy would be the ice. This could be a very bad situation.

Indeed, Tuesday is expected to be the toughest day for driving as Texas bridges and roads become icy, according to the weather service’s Fort Worth office.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas told CNN it would be able to meet residents demand during the cold weather.

“We expect sufficient generation to meet forecasted demand and are continuing to monitor forecasts, this week. We aren’t asking for it at the moment. We are informing the public that IF they are experience an outage to reach out to their local power provider,” the agency said in an email.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/weather/winter-ice-storm-south-central-us/index.html

Two inches of ice in the central Oklahoma City area during the last two days of the month of November and early October, and chances of much sooner than expected

The residents of Oklahoma City are under a winter weather advisory until Wednesday afternoon with the expectation of seeing up to two tenths of an inch of ice.