A blizzard continues blasting the Plains and Midwest with heavy snow and tropical storm-force winds. Driving was near impossible and first responders who tried to keep the roads clear shivered in below-zero wind chills.
“We’ve seen some locations that have been in blizzard conditions or near blizzard conditions for 6 to 7 hours, and this is going to continue as we push through the evening time,” said FOX Weather Meteorologist Steve Bender.
Crews closed miles of roads and interstates like I-80 and I-70 through Nebraska and Kansas as car after car slid off the slippery roads and tractor-trailers jackknifed, blocking lanes.
“We’ve seen I-80 close throughout the afternoon in Nebraska because of semis being jackknifed,” said Bender. “Because they are sails, they start blowing around.”
Visibility dropped to zero in areas with the blowing snow. A Nebraska trooper took video to show people exactly why they should avoid driving.
‘I’M SHOCKED,’ VETERAN TRUCK DRIVER REACTS TO WRECKS IN STORM
The NWS defines a blizzard as wind blowing at least 35 mph and visibility below a quarter of a mile for at least three hours. The video above definitely shows blizzard conditions as the trooper could barely see past the hood of his car.
The NWS Goodland, Kansas office posted the blizzard conditions outside their front door. The wind was blowing from the north-northwest at 38 mph and gusting to 60 mph. The air temperature at the time was 18 degrees but with the wind chill, the air felt like 4 below zero.
WHAT MAKES A BLIZZARD DIFFERENT FROM AN ORDINARY SNOWSTORM?
Goodland is only expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow, but areas across Nebraska have already measured almost 10 inches and are expecting to shovel over a foot by the time this storm calms.
FOX Weather’s Exclusive Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth had to pull off the road midday in Dodge City, Kansas, as the wind and snow picked up.
“This is unbelievable. A few people coming in (to the hotel) saying that this is the worst they’ve ever seen. And I don’t know how long they have lived here, but this is something else,” said Sudduth.
“I’ve been in a lot of winter storms in my lifetime and obviously hurricanes. And this is like, to me, a winter hurricane out here in the Southern Plains. Snow blowing around, thundersnow earlier. People trying to get to the hotel. It is just mayhem out here,” he said.
Sudduth said he struggled to walk 70 yards from the hotel to his truck, “My face was burning, and it was very hard to see.”
Here is what he saw and heard. “Yikes,” his photographer said before stepping out of the heated vestibule.
BLIZZARD SNARLING TRAVEL ACROSS PLAINS, MIDWEST AS WINTER STORM WALLOPS US WITH SNOW, WIND
He said he was surprised how quickly the weather turned, even after all his storm chasing.
“Early in the day, it was just kind of rainy. Not a big problem out here; everything is brown like winter. About a 90-minute time period, it just ramped up out of nowhere and the wind picked up,” Suddath said.
“The snow changed from big wet aggregates, as we call it, to a more misty, almost like a frozen mist, almost like a snow gun. That’s what it feels like with everything blowing around,” he continued. “But it happened very, very quickly, just an average winter morning of blah to now we have a big-time blizzard out here in Kansas.”
SNOW, SLEET, FREEZING RAIN AND HAIL: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Snow blew sideways in the winds and coated everything. Take a look at these horses in Colorado huddling together in a shelter but still covered in snow, like they were sandblasted.
The snow and ice stuck to everything. Here are the traffic lights in Ames, Iowa.
The Blizzard Warnings continue on Tuesday.