An Arctic air surge brought strong winds, heavy snow, and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday—one day after a bomb cyclone moving rapidly across the Midwest left tens of thousands of customers .
Gusty winds were projected to amplify the cold, with lows dropping below freezing as far south as the Florida Panhandle, according to the National Weather Service.
This week, the severe storm struck parts of the Plains and Great Lakes with much colder air, strong winds, and a mix of snow, ice, and rain, creating hazardous travel conditions. Forecasters noted it intensified rapidly enough to qualify as a —a system that grows stronger quickly as pressure decreases.
Kristen Schultz, who was traveling back to Alaska, stated that her trip to the Minneapolis airport on Tuesday took four hours.
“Just allow yourself lots of extra time— that way, even if everything goes well, you won’t feel stressed, and you’ll be prepared if things don’t go smoothly,” she advised.
Across the country, over 115,000 customers lacked power on Tuesday morning, with roughly a third of those in Michigan, per Poweroutage.us.
As the storm shifts into Canada, the freezing air following it will spread over most of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., the National Weather Service reported, fueling the “snow machine” in regions downwind of the Great Lakes.
Forecasters said some parts of western and upstate New York received a foot or more of snow on Monday, with totals possibly hitting 3 feet (91 centimeters) this week. On Monday, strong winds—including an 81 mph (130 kph) gust in Buffalo, New York—knocked down trees and power lines across the area, the weather service noted.
“Right now, the worst appears to be behind us, and we anticipate conditions will improve, especially by later today,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the weather service.
Social media videos depict people struggling to walk in the windy conditions and a downtown Buffalo waterway filled with tree branches and other debris from a wind-driven surge off Lake Erie.
In Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo, Diane Miller was filmed being blown off her daughter’s front steps and landing in some bushes. She didn’t suffer serious injuries.
“I opened her door, the wind grabbed me, and I went flying,” Miller told WKBW-TV.
Forecasters said whiteout conditions could still occur in some areas, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul urged residents in affected regions to avoid nonessential travel.
Powerful winds on Lake Erie pushed water toward the basin’s eastern end near Buffalo while lowering water levels on the western side in Michigan, exposing normally underwater lakebed—including a car wreck and a snowmobile.
Kevin Aldrich, a 33-year-old maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he’d never seen the lake recede so far and was shocked to find remnants of piers from the 1830s on Monday. He shared photos on social media of wooden pilings sticking several feet out of the muck.
“That area is usually about 12 feet deep—3.6 meters,” he said. “We can normally drive our boat over it.”
On Monday, dangerous wind chills in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota dropped to as low as minus 30 F (minus 34 C). In northeast West Virginia, rare near-hurricane-force winds were recorded on a mountain near Dolly Sods, the National Weather Service said.
On the West Coast, strong Santa Ana winds with isolated gusts exceeding 70 mph (112 kph) knocked down trees in parts of Southern California where had saturated the soil. Downed power lines led to the closure of a freeway north of Los Angeles for several hours on Monday. Wind advisories expired by evening, but blustery conditions—accompanied by thunderstorms—were expected to continue through Saturday.
New Year’s Day rain could potentially wet the for the first time in roughly 20 years.
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York, Leah Willingham in Concord, New Hampshire, Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia, and Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut.