U.S. holiday travel expected to be difficult as storm hits

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO | Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:16pm EST

CHICAGO Dec 21 (Reuters) - Holiday travel could be a challenge from Michigan to the central Appalachian mountains as a blast of winter weather including heavy snow and high winds hits the region through Saturday, meteorologists said on Friday.

"Right now the Great Lakes are getting hit, from Lake Michigan to the east," said Pat Slattery, spokesman for the National Weather Service. "The big story for most people is it's going to mess travel up completely."

Pittsburg is expected to take the biggest blow of any major metropolitan area, with 10-18 inches expected to fall by Saturday evening. Western New York, including Buffalo, is looking at up to 14 inches, Slattery said.

The winter blast is part of the same system that buried parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin Thursday in more than a foot of snow in some places, shutting down roads and schools.

More than 320,000 homes and businesses were without power in the eastern half of the United States Friday, following a series of snow and rain storms, power companies said. The hardest hit states include Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The storm system was also fueling strong winds in the east and southeast, with gusts of between 50 and 60 miles per hour. The winds were strong enough to knock down tree limbs, weaken trees and send unsecured objects into the air, noted Accuweather.com senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

"It is possible the winds could disturb some repair work being done in the wake of Sandy," wrote Sosnowski in an article on the website, referring to the hurricane that devastated the east coast in late October.

The winds will likely result in flight delays in the region from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston into the weekend. On the west coast, heavy rains are causing delays at San Francisco International Airport, according to Accuweather.com.

The sun is shining in Iowa Friday, and the state's Department of Transportation has "every person and every piece of equipment we have out on the roads," according to state maintenance engineer Bob Younie.

"Salt and the sun is going to be our friend today," Younie said. "I'd like think we're going to get the roads back to pretty drivable conditions."

The storm Thursday contributed to a 25-car accident near Clarion, Iowa that left three people dead.

The winter storm, named Draco by the Weather Channel, began Tuesday in the Rocky Mountains, marking a sharp change from the mild December experienced by most of the nation. High winds kicked up a dust storm in western Texas on Wednesday leading to one death in a traffic accident near Lubbock.

Chicago got just 0.2 of an inch of snow through midnight, ending a record streak of 290 days without measurable snow, according to Accuweather.com.

Other snowfalls set records Thursday, including Madison, Wisconsin with 13.3 inches, beating a previous record of 4.6 inches for the day set in 2000. Even heavier snow fell in Middleton, south of Madison, which got 19.5 inches, Slattery said.

Also setting a record was Des Moines, Iowa, with 12.4 inches, breaking a record of 4.5 inches set in 1925, according to Accuweather.com (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

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UPDATE 1-First major storm of winter pelts U.S. Midwest

* Possible tornado blamed for damage in Mobile, Alabama

* Blizzard warnings for US Midwest and central Plains

* Some 400,000 homes without power across US Midwest, South (Updates to add number of homes without power, details of storm in Midwest)

CHICAGO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The first major winter storm of the year hit the U.S. Midwest on Thursday bringing a blizzard to the Plains and a possible tornado to Alabama as well as leaving around 400,000 customers in 13 states without electricity.

"There are blizzard warnings in effect from southeastern Nebraska through much of Iowa into Wisconsin," said Bruce Terry, a senior National Weather Service forecaster at the HydroMeteorological Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

"It's going to be very windy with considerable blowing and drifting of snow," he said, calling the pre-Christmas storm "a major winter snow storm event for the Midwest and western Great Lakes."

Accumulations of up to a foot (30 cm) of snow were expected in some areas, Terry said, adding there was a potential for severe weather on the so-called "warm side" of the storm in the U.S. southeast.

Blowing snow led to school closures in parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, plus the closure of all state government offices in Iowa. Storms in those four states left around 130,000 homes without power.

"Thunder" snow was reported in Iowa during Wednesday night, especially in southeastern Iowa, as thunder and lightning accompanied the storm as it trekked across the state.

"At this point the storm is starting to pull slowly away from the state, but we still have widespread snow across much of Iowa," says Kevin Skow, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "That should slowly taper off during the mid-morning hours from west to east."

One suspected twister damaged buildings, snapped trees, downed power lines and flipped vehicles near downtown Mobile, Alabama, early on Thursday, but there were no reports of injuries, authorities said.

"The potential is there certainly for some isolated tornadoes," Terry said, referring to a broad swath of Gulf of Mexico coast and inland territory stretching from southeast Louisiana through the western Florida Panhandle.

While the heavy snow in the Upper Midwest will create potentially dangerous travel conditions, meteorologist Jeff Masters said it put an end to this year's "record-length snowless streaks in a number of U.S. cities."

Writing on his website weatherunderground.com, Masters said the storm would also provide "welcome moisture for drought-parched areas of the Midwest."

The winter storm, named Draco by the Weather Channel, began Tuesday in the Rocky Mountains, marking a dramatic change from the mild December so far in most of the nation.

In western Nebraska, the storm prompted the closure of a long stretch of Interstate 80 late Wednesday as blowing snow reduced visibility and caused treacherous driving conditions.

In Colorado, Interstate 70 was also closed east of Denver all the way to western Kansas due to high winds, wind-driven snow and reduced visibility, authorities said.

High winds kicked up a dust storm in west Texas on Wednesday, leading to at least one death in a traffic accident near Lubbock.

Power companies reported electrical outages in Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. (Writing by Tom Brown and Nick Carey; Reporting by Mary Wisniewski in Chicago, Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama and Keith Coffman in Denver, Colorado, Kay Henderson in Des Moines, Iowa, Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Matthew Waller in San Angelo, Texas and Scott DiSavino in New York.; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Greg McCune and Tim Dobbyn)

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