O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Icy winter weather blanketed the U.S. Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records inland, spreading cold and snow from coast to coast and sending everything from one coast to a frigid state Football playoffs to presidential campaigns.
As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a crazy mix of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the Northern Plains to high wind warnings in New Mexico.
“Overall it was a terrible, terrible winter. And it came out of nowhere — for two days,” Dan Abinana said as he surveyed snowy Des Moines, Iowa. He moved to the state from Tanzania years ago as a child, but said, “You never get used to the snow.”
Severe weather in Oregon played a role in three deaths.
In Portland, coroners were investigating a hypothermia death as freezing rain and heavy snow fell in a city more accustomed to mild winter rains, sending hundreds of people sheltering in warming centers overnight.
Portland Fire and Rescue also reported the death of a woman in her early 30s Saturday afternoon. A mobile home caught fire when a small group of people used an open-flame stove to keep warm, and a tree fell on the vehicle, causing it the fire spread. Three other people escaped, including one with minor injuries, but the woman was trapped inside, the fire department said.
Authorities in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said a large tree fell on a home amid high winds Saturday, killing an elderly man on the second floor.
Weather-related deaths were reported earlier this week in California, Idaho, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen declared a state of emergency, citing “very dangerous conditions.” Some areas received up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow last week and wind chills were well below zero.
“This event will not go away tonight. “It’s not going to go away tomorrow,” Pillen said at a news conference. “It will take a few days.”
About 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometers) of highways in Nebraska were closed. State police helped more than 400 stranded motorists, said Col. John A. Bolduc, head of the Nebraska State Patrol.
In Iowa, cars were stuck in blowing snow on Interstate 80 for five hours after semi-trailers swerved in slippery conditions. State troopers had responded to 86 crashes and 535 calls for help from motorists since Friday, State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said.
Road crews worked “like crazy with the snowblowers,” Dinkla said, but strong winds blew the snow right back onto the roads.
Governors from New York to Louisiana warned residents to prepare for worrisome weather.
Parts of Montana fell below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) Saturday morning, and the National Weather Service said similar temperatures were expected as far north as Kansas, with minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 46 degrees Celsius) in the Dakotas. be possible. In St. Louis, the National Weather Service warned of rare and “life-threatening” cold temperatures.
“We've now had several back-to-back storms” sweeping across the country, said weather service meteorologist Zach Taylor. This usually happens at least a few times during the US winter.
Still, for Eboni Jones of Des Moines, it felt unusual “how much we all get in a week.”
“It’s pretty crazy,” Jones said as he shoveled snow.
Grant Rampton, 25, also of Des Moines, braved a wind chill of minus 29 degrees Celsius to go sledding with friends on a golf course. He combated the cold by wearing layers of clothing and insulated socks and constantly moving.
“It’s a great state,” said Rampton, a lifelong Iowan. “There isn't a lot to do, especially in the winter, but you can have your own fun, like sledding out here with your friends.”
The temperature in parts of Iowa could plunge as low as minus 14 F (minus 26 C) on Monday as the state's caucuses open the presidential primary season. And forecasters said it would be Wednesday before the wind chill would disappear below freezing.
Republicans Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump all canceled campaign events because of the storm.
According to poweroutage.us, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost power Saturday afternoon, primarily in Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin.
In Yankton, South Dakota, the evening temperature was minus 15 F (minus 26 C). Police there said the plows were “frozen and broken” and therefore would not be used until conditions improved. The Minnehaha County Highway Department also withdrew its plows “due to poor visibility and extremely cold temperatures.”
Elsewhere, the problem wasn't snow and wind but water: record flooding hit the Northeast, flooding some homes in Maine and New Hampshire.
The northeast coast was hit by 1 to 2 inches of rain in the morning, and a storm surge added to what was already the highest tide of the month, National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Cempa said. In Portland, Maine, a gauge recorded a 14.57-foot (4.4-meter) difference between high tide and average low tide, beating a previous record of 14.17 feet (4.3 meters) set in 1978.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned of a “dangerous storm” as she announced that the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers NFL playoff game had been postponed from Sunday to Monday. Residents in the county, which includes Buffalo, were told to stay off the roads starting Saturday at 9 p.m. The weather forecast called for 1 to 2 feet (0.3 to 0.6 meters) or more of snow and wind gusts of up to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h).
A cold playoff game between the Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins was scheduled to take place in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday night. The temperature at kick-off was expected to be minus 2 degrees Celsius (minus 18 degrees Celsius), with wind causing a felt minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Celsius).
Still, hours earlier, hundreds of fans lined up outside Arrowhead Stadium parking lots, some wearing ski goggles, heated socks and other winter gear they had purchased for the game.
Chiefs season ticket holder Keaton Schlatter and his friends, like many other fans, had considered selling their seats.
“But we decided it was all part of the experience and we didn’t want to miss it,” said Schlatter, of West Des Moines, Iowa.
In Oregon, Robert Banks, who has been homeless for several years, stood outside his blue tent on a Portland street that afternoon, wearing a glove as sleet pelted him. He said he wanted to secure his belongings before heading to a shelter.
“I lived in Alaska for a few years,” he said. “The wind and the wet cold are different from the dry tundra cold…oh, it’s freezing.”
The snow was welcome at least in one place.
Philip Spitzley of Lake Odessa, Michigan, woke up Friday to 95 little snowmen in his front yard to celebrate his 95th birthday. Fifteen family members and a neighbor worked together on the snow compaction job, which took about 90 minutes.
“I was pretty surprised,” Spitzley said. “I was sitting here watching TV and I didn’t know they were out there. Then I saw flashlights.”
The exhibition has become a spectacle as motorists slow down to take a look. And with days of cold weather ahead, “they're going to be there for a while,” Spitzley said.
___
Peltz reported from New York. Nathan Ellgren and Mark Vancleave in Des Moines, Iowa; Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri; Julie Walker in New York; Ed White in Detroit; Nick Perry in Meredith, New Hampshire; Jennifer Kane in Portland, Oregon; and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed.