Brutal winter storm hits Midwest bringing blizzard conditions, freezing temps: Live updates

Weather advisories were issued for most parts of the country Friday as a powerful storm moved over the Plains and Midwest regions, unleashing freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall that blanketed roadways, grounded flights and closed schools.

Morning and afternoon highs were not expected to surpass zero degrees across much of Montana and North Dakota on Friday while temperatures in the Central Plains states, including Iowa and Minnesota, were expected to peak around the 10s, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures could drop as low as minus 40 in parts of the northern Plains. Amid such conditions, wind chills can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes, the weather service said.

By 6 a.m. local time, more than 4 inches of snow had fallen in parts of Iowa. Areas across the Midwest are expected to receive snowfall in the double digits by early Saturday morning. The weather service in Chicago reported Friday morning that 2 inches of snow had blanketed the metro area with more expected through the weekend. Flights at Chicago O'Hare International Airport were temporarily grounded.

In the Southeast, damaging wind gusts threatening to produce tornadoes concerned meteorologists, especially in the Gulf Coast region. The weather service issued a tornado watch from eastern Texas to western Mississippi. Wind advisories were in effect in eastern Texas, across the Gulf Coast and up through Vermont.

In the Northeast, the poleward advance of Gulf moisture will lead to yet another round of heavy rain stretching northward into the mid-Atlantic and southern New England by Friday night. Much of the Northeast is still reeling from a winter storm earlier this week that dumped torrential rain over the region, flooding coastal neighborhoods and low-lying areas from New Jersey to Maine.

The Pacific Northwest will also face the frigid combination of arctic air and gusty east winds making temperatures below zero degrees possible. The weather service has placed widespread wind chill advisories and watches and has advised people to take precautions to avoid frostbite and hypothermia.

Developments:

∎ Blizzard warnings were issued Friday morning for areas of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to the weather service.

∎ Roads across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and northern Illinois were "completely" covered with snow, slush or ice, according to a regional map of road conditions from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Iowa State Patrol issued a "Life-Threatening Winter Weather Alert" asking people to cease non-essential travel overnight.

∎ More than 240,000 households were without power as of 10 a.m. Friday, according to a tracker maintained by USA TODAY. Most outages were reported in Illinois, where nearly 100,000 utility customers lost power amid freezing temperatures and intense snowfall.

∎ Parts of Utah and Wyoming are expected to receive "impressive snowfall" over the weekend, the Salt Lake City National Weather Service announced. The region is under winter storm warnings, as northern Utah and southwest Wyoming brace for up to four feet of snow.

Gov. Kathy Hochul says National Guard deployed ahead of New York storm

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press briefing on Friday that the National Guard will be in place Saturday morning ahead of a major storm expected to impact much of the state.

Hochul said 11,000 crew members stood ready to assist if the power goes out, with 5,500 already stationed in the western part of the state.

"It's going to be bitter cold," she said. "Do whatever you can to stay safe and warm."

Officials are preparing for blizzard-like conditions and for temperatures to drop below freezing starting Saturday, with wind gusts of up to 70 mph posing a danger of power outages, Hochul's office said in a press release on Thursday.

Storm triggers widespread state of emergency declarations in Wisconsin counties

Counties throughout Wisconsin on Friday issued and extended state of emergency declarations as a winter storm brought blizzard-like conditions to some areas. Several counties closed courthouses and county offices early for the day.

In Waukesha County, non-essential county employees were sent home at 1 p.m. on Friday because of treacherous road conditions.

“The rate of snowfall and blowing winds has caused deterioration of our roads county-wide,” read a statement from County Executive Paul Farrow. The declaration will remain in place through Saturday afternoon.

Tiffany Lorence, a resident of the county, told USA TODAY that powerful gusts of wind and rapid snowfall began overnight and piled up to more than a foot of snow outside her home by the time she woke up on Friday.

Lorence, who owns a martial arts school in Waukesha with her husband, said she and her children, who are homeschooled, are going to “enjoy the snow.”

“We've waited a long time for it this year,” she said, noting that the first lasting snow they got fell on Tuesday when an earlier winter storm barreled across the Midwest. “We can't really complain now.”

Illinois residents woke up to ferocious storm

Christine Forwell, a longtime resident of Romeoville, Illinois, a village about 25 miles southwest of Chicago, said the most intense snowfall began at about 4 a.m. local time.

“It started snowing real, real heavy and it did that for about two hours,” she told USA TODAY. “It got pretty rough.”

Forwell was one of nearly 90,000 utility customers who lost power Friday morning as the storm swept across the Midwest. Her power went out at about 7 a.m. and remained out through most of the morning.

The heavy wind and snow was eventually replaced by “light flakes” after a few hours, she said. There were snow mounds at least 2 feet high when conditions cleared up.

Warming centers open as cities nationwide brace for winter storm

Cities around the country are opening warming centers and winter shelters ahead of a winter storm expected to bring frigid temperatures and inches of snow to some areas.

In Chicago, which could receive up to 12 inches of snow amid temperatures that could descend 30 degrees below zero with wind chill, the city designated six community centers as "warming centers."

The mayor of Akron, Ohio announced on Friday that a local community center would extend its hours from Sunday to Tuesday to operate as a warming center. The area is bracing for strong winds and snow showers this weekend, according to the Weather Channel.

Down south, Houston also opened six warming centers throughout the city as the region prepares for an arctic front to move in late Saturday and Sunday. The city will also provide free rides to the centers, according to KHOU-11.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also announced the opening of warming centers noting that temperatures in the area could drop below ten degrees with sub-zero wind chills. Polis issued a disaster declaration that freed up resources to address the winter storm.

Blizzard forces GOP presidential candidates to cancel events Friday

Blizzard conditions bearing down on Iowa complicated the event schedules of Republican presidential candidates ahead of the start of the state's caucuses.

Nikki Haley's campaign canceled three in-person events scheduled Friday in Fort Dodge, Le Mars and Council Bluffs due to the weather. Instead, campaign officials said they would be hosting telephone town halls.

“Stormy weather won’t stop us from ensuring Iowans hear Nikki’s vision for a strong and proud America,” Pat Garrett, a Haley spokesperson, said in a statement to the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. “With only three days until the caucuses, we’re going to keep telling voters why they should Pick Nikki.”

Ron DeSantis also canceled two events Friday morning.

Vivek Ramaswamy, however, said he would continue with every event as "long as we can physically make it." His campaign team went into a ditch earlier this week and needed the help of a passerby to get out.

– Des Moines Register

Severe weather causes ground stop at Chicago airport

Poor weather conditions on Friday led to more than 1,000 flights at airports across the country being canceled.

In Illinois, Chicago O'Hare International Airport temporarily grounded all flights on Friday morning due to snow and ice, said the Federal Aviation Administration. Just before 9 a.m., officials reported a 2-hour delay at the airport that was anticipated to last until 8 p.m. local time.

Weather service forecasters warned people throughout the state to consider staying off the roads as snow fell between 1-2 inches per hour and limited visibility. "Expect hazardous to downright dangerous travel conditions today across much of the area," the weather service in Chicago said.

Schools close amid winter storm, severe weather

School closures were ubiquitous throughout the Midwest and Plains regions as a powerful winter storm dropped temperatures into single digits and below zero.

Hundreds of public schools canceled classes or transitioned to e-learning from Idaho to Illinois. Dozens of schools were closed earlier this week when a storm barreled across the country and brought blizzard conditions to the Midwest.

In the Southeast, schools throughout Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee canceled classes ahead of expected storms bringing high winds, rain and the threat of tornadoes to the region.

2 men rescued, 1 believed dead in Idaho avalanche

Two men were rescued and a third was believed dead after an avalanche in Idaho swept across the backcountry on Thursday afternoon.

The avalanche happened near Stevens Peak in Shoshone County in the state's northern panhandle near the Montana and Washington borders, about 100 miles from Spokane, Washington.

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office in a statement posted on social media said authorities received a GPS alert of a possible fatality near Steven's Peak shortly before 3 p.m. Law enforcement assembled a rescue team and were able to locate two of the three men while searching in their last known location. Authorities believe the third man is dead.

"While debriefing the two males, we received information causing us to believe the third male was deceased at the site of the avalanche," the sheriff's office said. Authorities began searching the area again on Friday.

Winter storms barreling through the western United States throughout the week led forecasters to issue avalanche warnings from northern California up through Washington. The area where Thursday's avalanche occurred was under a warning.

On Wednesday, an avalanche at a ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California, killed one man and injured three others.

Severe weather to continue into next week

"The storms and winter weather are yet only the first part of the story as a surge of arctic air into the heart of the country will follow in the storm system's wake," the National Weather Service said.

A polar plunge will bring century-old record low temperatures to most of the country at the end of this week and into next week, the NWS reported.

The subfreezing temperatures that have reached the northern Rockies and Plains will head farther south and east, the service reported. By early next week, arctic air will spread from southern Texas to the Florida Panhandle.

What is the polar vortex? In-depth look at how it can affect winter weather in the US next week

US weather watches and warnings

National weather radar

Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Winter storm live updates: Extreme cold weather descends across nation