Dueling winter storms have dumped snow and ice, and caused wind damage across the United States as Americans brace for dangerously cold te...
Dueling winter storms have dumped snow and ice, and caused wind damage across the United States as Americans brace for dangerously cold temperatures through Valentine's Day weekend.
More than a foot of snow has already blanketed parts of Washington and Oregon as a new storm system hit the West Coast on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The East Coast was hammered with more snow, ice and freezing rain as power outage numbers climbed on Saturday, the Weather Channel reported.
The outlet reported that the new winter storm system 'could be one of the heavier snow events in at least a few years in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.'
Gusty winds have already left more than 233,000 customers without power across Oregon, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 33,500 customers were left without power in Nevada.
Central Illinois was shaken by a train derailment around 5am on Saturday when 16 Union Pacific cargo cars went off the tracks near the Uptown Normal station, according to The Pantagraph.
Temperatures were near zero at the time of the accident but it was not certain if the weather had caused it, officials told the outlet. No injuries were reported and officials said the train was not carrying hazardous materials.
As of Saturday, 40 states home to some 200 million Americans have placed winter weather alerts into effect as unseasonably cold temperatures are set to migrate as far south as Texas and Louisiana, while snow, sleet, freezing rain, and brutal wind chills will make it hazardous to leave your home in the northern half of the country.
Pictured: John Kramer walks down in Columbia City as heavy snow blankets the Seattle area on Saturday Saturday. Hundreds of thousands have been left without power as the winter storm has blanketed the Pacific Northwest with ice and snow
Cold Arctic air is expected to push through most of the continental United States this weekend
Most of the continental United States is experiencing below freezing temperatures on Saturday as forecasters predict a brutal weekend stretching from the Pacific Northwest all the way to the Northeast and New England
Pictured: A bus sits stuck in the snow in Seattle on Saturday after a large winter storm dropped heavy snow across the region
Pictured: Kyle Crabill, 6, and Daren Crabill sled down a hill in the snow at Wright Park in Tacoma, Washington, on Saturday
The Oregon Department of Transportation said on Twitter that driving conditions would 'remain treacherous' throughout the morning on Saturday as downed trees and powerlines, and icy conditions closed many roads.
Meteorologists expect two more rounds of lighter snow to hit the Pacific Northwest early in the week, the Weather Channel reported.
A fast-moving thunderstorm tore down trees and damaged homes as it made its way across the Las Vegas valley on Saturday afternoon, KLAS reported. Pictures obtained by the outlet show fallen trees and torn up sidewalks.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued until 2.45pm for Las Vegas and Henderson, according to the outlet, as parts of Clark County reported wind gusts of 50-70 mph.
A worker inspects damage after a northbound freight train derailed on the Union Pacific main line south of Uptown Normal, Ill. on Saturday
A Normal, Illinois, firefighter puts up crime scene tape after a northbound freight train derailed on the Union Pacific main line on Saturday
About 16 Union Pacific freight cars derailed at a train station in Illinois and it remained unclear if the accident was caused by weather
Debris from an 18-car accident caused by winter weather is seen on I-24 eastbound near mile marker 62 near Nashville on Saturday
Fallen trees and a blown trampoline are shown in Las Vegas after a severe thunderstorm brought high wind to the region on Saturday
Tennessee Department of Transportation traffic cameras show weather conditions when during an 18-car pileup caused by winter storms near Nashville
A skier makes their way down a Seattle road on Saturday after in Seattle after a large winter storm dropped heavy snow across the region
Pictured: People play amidst persistent snowfall in Seattle on Saturday after a large winter storm dropped heavy snow across the region
Pictured: A skier makes their way down a hill in Seattle, Washington after a large winter storm dropped heavy snow on roads
A bouncy house filled with kids was blown on top of a nearby house, but responding crews from Las Vegas Fire & Rescue found the kids safe in the home, the outlet reported.
KLAS Meteorologist Sally Jaramillo said that the storm system would bring widespread strong winds to the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin region through Saturday evening along with areas of blowing dust.
The storm will cross the Rocky Mountains and dump as much as a foot of snow in Oklahoma and Texas through Sunday night, according to the NWS.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a state of emergency for all 254 of the state's counties in preparation for the new storm. The Dallas-Fort Worth area could face near-blizzard conditions and historic low temperatures.
The state is still facing more than 13,500 power outages after this week's storms, according to PowerOutage.us.
Photos from Las Vegas show visibility conditions after strong gusts from a severe thunderstorm picked up dust on Saturday
Photos show a billboard blown down by high winds after a severe thunderstorm hit the Las Vegas area on Saturday
Photos show a billboard blown down by high winds after a severe thunderstorm hit the Las Vegas area on Saturday
San Antonio is expected reach low top temperatures of around 15 degrees on Sunday night, Accuweather reported. The city's recorded low is 21 degrees set in 1895.
Houston officials advised residents on Friday to prepare for power outages and hazardous roads that could be similar to those experienced in the wake of a Category 5 hurricane.
Houston, which earlier this week had high temperatures in the 70s and usually has mild winters, was forecast to have its coldest temperatures in 30 years.
Temperatures in Houston late Monday night into early Tuesday morning are expected to dip to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
'It's a serious event, and we want to treat it the same way we would if a hurricane were to (be) forecast and land here,' said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county where Houston is located.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said officials planned on Sunday to open a shelter at the city's convention center for Houston's homeless population.
Turner advised residents to stay off the roads as freezing rain, sleet and possibly even snow was forecast for Sunday and Monday. Snowfall is rare for the Houston area.
In the Texas Panhandle, the wind chill factor from Sunday through Tuesday could dip to minus 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in some locations, along with snowfall of up to 12 inches.
Even in deep South Texas, which also typically has mild winters, temperatures early Tuesday morning are expected to be in the 20s Fahrenheit range.
'It's going to be a mess,' said Lance Wood, a science operations officer with National Weather Service in the Houston area.
In Tennessee on Saturday, at least six people were injured after icy roads caused an 18-vehicle crash and the closure of Interstate 24, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department.
Several people were taken to the hospital on Saturday after an 18-car crash on Interstate 24 in South Nashville. The Nashville Fire Department said 12 people were taken to the hospital
Cattle shelters from the cold wind on the side of a pump jack array in Midland, Texas on Saturday as the state braced for subfreezing temperatures
'On this Valentine's Weekend, please show loved ones you care by reducing your speed, keeping your eyes on the road and leaving your cell phone in hands-free mode,' the department tweeted.
Nashville resident Claudia Arakas told the Tennessean she saw the collision and hit the brakes, skidding through cars as her car wouldn't stop - somehow avoiding hitting anyone.
'I didn't have much control, but I took my foot off the gas and tried to do my best to steer. I can't even tell you how I managed to get out,' Arakas said.
'I was watching cars crash in front of me, while also maneuvering — oh my gosh, it was insane.'
The Midwest and Plains regions have already recorded extremely cold temperatures this past week thanks to a shift in the polar vortex, Accuweather reported.
Extremely cold temperatures are expected to continue into the week, dipping as low as -30 degrees in some parts of the country with 'life-threatening wind chills' between -30 to -60 degrees in the north-central part of the country, NPR reported.
The Sioux City Journal in Iowa reported that the overnight low on Sunday could break records as low temperatures could dip as low as -24 degrees with a windchill of -38 degrees.
The record low temperature of -20 degrees for that date was set during the brutal winter of 1936, according to the outlet.
'That potentially could be a record,' said National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Adams.
In New York, the NWS has issued a storm watch from 7am on Monday to 1pm on Tuesday as the 'double winter whammy' storms are expected to drop more than 9 inches of snow, The Buffalo News reported.
Forecasters said that snowfall is expected to arrive in two stages, according to the outlet.
Widespread snow will hit the state on Sunday night when a deep cold front descends on the Midwest. Then on Monday night, a second wave will drop heavier snow, the Buffalo News reported.
Downstate, a wintry mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow will cause poor driving conditions across New York City and its suburbs on Sunday but is not expected to accumulate much, the New York Daily News reported.
Then, the second storm with a mix of sleet and rain is expected from Monday night into Tuesday, with 'warnings of substantial ice accumulations,' according to the outlet.
Some of the East Coast saw freezing rain on Saturday, according to the Weather Channel. Tree branches came down on power lines and in yards as more than 277,000 were reported without power in Virginia.
More than 118,600 were reported without power in North Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us.
Snow and freezing rain could fall from Seattle to Washington, DC, and from North Dakota to Louisiana, said meteorologist Marc Chenard at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
This weekend, winter weather alerts are in effect for 40 states, including areas of Texas and Louisiana, which normally experience mild winters
Winter storm warnings and advisories are in effect for areas stretching from Appalachia and the Midwest toward the South, the Great Plains, and the Rocky Mountain states
Most of the eastern half of the United States can expect to see some accumulation through the weekend, according to meteorologists
Forecasters are predicting snow, ice, and wind gusts for wide swaths of Texas and neighboring Oklahoma on Sunday
Rare snowfall is also in the forecast this weekend for the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle and Portland, Oregon
'Lots of winter weather. This is about as busy as you'll get for weather across the country,' Chenard said on Friday.
Bitter cold gripped the Plains on Friday, just a day after winter weather battered the United States from coast to coast.
Temperatures as low as -45 degrees Fahrenheit gripped Montana and Minnesota as cities such as Bismarck, North Dakota, shivered at -26.
'North Dakota is all fun and games until you have to be working in negative 40 degree weather,' @BricFlare wrote in a Twitter post.
The Plains states will see significant snowfalls of 6 or more inches and freezing rain from Sunday into Monday, the weather service's Chenard said, with the threat of freezing rain as far south as Houston and Louisiana.
By Saturday night, freezing rain was expected in areas around the nation's capital, including Virginia and Maryland, Chenard said.
A wintry mix was expected to pelt the Northeast, where accumulations were expected to be minimal, although any slickness on roadways heightens travel risks.
'It shouldn't account for too much, but if it's freezing rain, that can cause issues even if it's light,' Chenard said.
Areas that aren't accustomed to seeing snow accumulations including Seattle and Portland, Oregon are due to see the white stuff this weekend
As of Saturday morning, snow was falling in the Pacific Northwest as well as parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and even elevated sections of Arizona
Temperatures are expected to plummet to below zero in parts of Wyoming and Montana, according to forecasters
Several inches of snow are expected in inland Washington State and Oregon as well as Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah
Authorities are warning residents of states in the eastern half of the country to stay off the roads due to expected ice accumulations
On Saturday, tens of thousands of residents of West Virginia were without power due to ice storms that affected the area on Thursday and Friday
Accumulation of snow, rain, ice, and sleet were in the forecast for the Midwest, Appalachia, the South, and the Atlantic coast
Snow, sleet, and freezing rain are expected to affect travel throughout New England, the Northeast, and Appalachia
Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine were all readying for varying levels of snow accumulation
As of Saturday morning, snowfall was reported in the Midwest and Great Plains while rain hit the Southeast
The Pacific Northwest started seeing more snow and some freezing rain Friday afternoon after snow fell in parts of Washington and Oregon on Thursday.
The National Weather Service issued an ice storm warning Friday for Oregon's Central Willamette Valley including Salem and for the southern Portland metro and a winter storm warning for the Portland/Vancouver, Washington areas.
After 5pm freezing rain had started to fall in places around the Portland metro area, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said.
Some roads were closed because of crashes and on southbound Interstate 205 a semi truck jackknifed, leading to a large traffic backup.
Early in the morning a person standing next to a garbage can warming fire on Pike and 1st street in Seattle on Saturday
The image above shows rare snowfall near the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle early on Saturday morning
Two kids are seen above with their sled during cold weather in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday. Temperatures are expected to plummet in St. Louis this weekend to lows of zero with wind chills at minus 12
Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge between Troutdale and Hood River was closed by 9pm on Friday, state Department of Transportation officials said.
'Deteriorating weather is making driving too dangerous with high winds and heavy snow. We'll reopen the interstate only when it is safe to do so,' the agency said on Twitter.
The National Weather Service said an additional 4 to 8 inches of snow could fall in the Portland area with another foot in the Cascades through Saturday.
Weather Service meteorologist Colby Newman told the Statesman Journal in Salem that ice accumulation expected there would make roads dangerous and weigh heavily on trees and power lines, potentially resulting in widespread power outages.
'We don't get this much ice very often, and it's a difficult situation because it can leave people without power, in the cold, for an extended period,' Newman said.
'It's probably a bigger deal than a snowstorm.'
Travel in the entire region could be impossible and is strongly discouraged, the National Weather Service and city officials in Portland and Salem said.
The weather also prompted school districts in the Portland/Vancouver area, Willamette Valley, and Columbia River Gorge to shut buildings and cancel in-person activities Friday.
Multiple COVID-19 vaccination sites, including those at the Oregon Convention Center and Portland International Airport and a site in southwest Washington's Clark County are closed for the weekend.
Aidin Weber, 18, of Clarkston, Washington leaps over his younger brother, David, 13, as he sleds down a hill at Sunset Park in Lewiston, Idaho on Friday
A man walks along a snowy path on Friday as temperatures hovered close to zero degrees at Shawnee Mission Park in Shawnee, Kansas. Temperatures were expected to fall to as low as -17 degrees by Monday as a winter storm moves through the area
A winter storm warning for the region including Olympia, Washington predicted up to nearly a foot of snow into Saturday after that city received more than 6 inches in some places on Thursday.
A pair of weekend storms are expected to follow across much of northern Nevada and the Sierra on the heels of one that dropped a foot of snow overnight at Lake Tahoe ski resorts.
A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10pm on Friday to 10am on Saturday for the Tahoe area, where up to 6 inches of snow is expected at lake level and up to 10 inches above 7,000 feet, the National Weather Service said.
Winds gusting up to 65 mph could cause extensive tree damage.
Snow levels could drop below 5,000 feet with winds gusting to 50 mph from Reno as far south as Yerington and east as Lovelock.
The advisory extends until 10pm on Saturday for most of northeast Nevada. One to eight inches of snow is forecast from Austin to Elko. A foot is possible in the Ruby Mountains.
Mammoth Mountain south of Yosemite National Park reported 18 inches of snow early Friday, 16 inches at Alpine Meadows on Tahoe's west shore and a foot at North Star at Truckee, California and South Lake Tahoe.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency on Friday for all 77 of the state's counties ahead of a major winter storm expected to push into the state during the weekend.
The declaration suspends requirements for oversized vehicles used for emergency relief and utility restoration. It also activates the state's Emergency Operations Plan and allows state agencies to make storm-related emergency acquisitions without regard to bidding requirements.
The storm is expected to begin pushing into the state late Saturday night and bring heavy snowfall and high winds that will reduce visibility and make travel difficult.
The Washington State Capitol wears a dusting of snow after about four inches fell the previous day in Olympia on Friday
A person walks through the snow at the Capitol in Olympia, Washington on Thursday. Winter weather is expected throughout the Puget Sound region through the weekend
Vehicles dowsed in snow are parked in the parking lot off Mose Avenue in Odessa, Texas on Friday
Motorist drive east on Texas State Highway 191 headed towards Midland from Odessa, Texas on Friday
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Thursday declared a state of emergency due to heavy rainfall and the potential for wintry conditions this weekend and into next week.
While the forecast is still uncertain, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness urged Louisiana residents to plan for flash flooding and dangerous winter weather conditions.
The National Weather Service warns an arctic high pressure system is pushing south, bringing the coldest air of the season to parts of the state.
'Already in Louisiana we have communities that have seen the impacts of flash flooding and water on the roadways, and there is the potential for worse weather and bad conditions as the days go on. Now is the time for people to make a plan for the coming days that could include staying at home during severe weather,' Edwards said in a news release.
'Monitor the local news and updates from the National Weather Service and your local leaders, check on your neighbors and stay safe.'
Community sites for COVID testing managed by Louisiana's National Guard will close on Monday and Tuesday.
Some West Virginia customers could be spending part of Valentine's Day in the dark as utility crews try to restore power from a midweek winter storm.
A man is pictured through frozen icicles as waits to catch a wave in the frigid ice-cold waters of Lake Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Friday
A man surfs in the frigid ice-cold waters of Lake Ontario in Toronto on Friday. The temperatures in Toronto this weekend are expected to drop as low as 14 degrees
Appalachian Power said that nearly 28,000 customers in southern West Virginia remained without electricity Friday. That includes 13,000 customers in Cabell County, 6,200 in Wayne County and 4,900 in Putnam County.
A combination of ice and snow brought down tree limbs on Wednesday night and Thursday. Appalachian Power has nearly 700 workers trying to restore power.
'Ice continues to weigh down trees and limbs continue to break, which has led to additional damage and new outages through the day,' the company said in a statement.
The utility said power may not be restored for some customers until Saturday night in Jackson and Mason counties and until Sunday evening in Cabell, Lincoln, Putnam and Wayne counties.
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