- Massive U.S. storm brings blizzards to Midwest, tornado threats to East.
- Over 16 million under tornado watches from Gulf Coast to Great Lakes.
- Level 4 severe risk Monday for Carolinas to mid-Atlantic states.
- More than 260,000 powerless across seven states amid high winds.
- Blizzard warnings hit 12 million; schools close in Maryland, Virginia.
An extremely fierce late winter storm is sweeping the United States on Sunday night with its inexorable combination of blizzards to the north, and a brewing hurricane of heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes much farther south and east. Described by some forecasters as a "triple-threat March megastorm" or "bomb cyclone," it is affecting nearly 200 million people from the Plains to the East Coast.
The storm is a typical disorganized March weather that even the more experienced residents were taken aback by the system burying the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes in heavy snow driven by the wind and the warmer southern side starting to set up lines of dangerous storms. By Sunday evening the scene was bleak, with up to 11 million people, the Dakotas to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under snow warnings, and estimated to have received over a foot by Sunday morning, and with an additional foot or more in places predicted.
Rochester, Minnesota is looking at a possible record-breaker, maybe even topping the 20 inches of its most intense March storm in 2005.
In Marquette, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula, it might accumulate to 2 to 4 feet and it was approaching the two-day historic record of 32 inches in 1997. The snow is forming a drifting nightmare as the winds of 50-70 mph turn it into a blinding nightmare.
Milwaukee County did not wait. Monday saw the beginning of full snow emergency bringing to halt the unnecessary offices, the courthouse and even the zoo.
The storm is probably going to be particularly dangerous in terms of traveling, meteorologists keep repeating, and that it is safer than it seems to the locals, since they know better than to experiment. But when you turn the map upside down south and east, it becomes a dramatic tale.
More than 16 million individuals arose under vigilant tornado watches extending on the Gulf coast all to the southern of the Great Lakes.
The Storm Prediction Center already had a Level 3 (enhanced) severe thunderstorm risk over a massive area of the Great Lakes to the Gulf on Sunday, which even warned that the actual fireworks would help kick off overnight into Monday.
Some of them might well be EF2-plus, particularly in areas of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee where supercells are best popular in Sunday evening. The common variety of killer in this situation is damaging straight-line winds that easily exceed 60 mph and isolated gusts reach as high as 75 mph or higher as storms combine to become long, roaring squall lines come Monday.
A new Level 4 (moderate) risk that extends as far south as the Carolinas and fanned out with a Level 3 zone engulfs that area. Destructive winds are still the main event, and they are likely to surpass 75 mph in all of Georgia and New Jersey.
The tornadoes are not yet exhausted and the downpour might trigger flash floods because the entire gunk is approaching the Appalachian and East Coast.
Power is already going dead. As of late Sunday, over 260,000 were dark in seven states - about 50,000 customers in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania alone, according to PowerOutage.us. Forecasters are warning that number might soar as gusts tear lines and trees.
Leaders are not risking
On Sunday night, Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced a State of Preparedness and X mirrored the efforts of state emergency teams were mobilized.
The Emergency Operations Center in Baltimore county was activated immediately. Schools in the region are banging doors and going online earlier than planned: Baltimore County districts are closing early, D.C. Public Schools are closing two hours early and cancelling after-school programs, Richmond is going fully and permanently online.
In Hyattsville, DeMatha Catholic High School posted a text-only message to parents that was quite sober: "Our forecast of tornadoes is too serious that we should have buses and vans and student drivers on the road."
They even cited the heart-rending 2001 University of Maryland incident when a tornado took a car and killed two sisters. The word is everywhere: do you not need to be out there, do not. The new monster storm should finally push offshore by Tuesday, sweeping along colder air and allowing ravaged communities an opportunity to dig out, survey the damage and take a breath. "Some twisters could be strong – capable of causing EF2 damage or greater," warned CNN Weather.
So far, the guidance of the National Weather Service is simple get yourself glued to local weather alerts, charge your devices, stock up and most importantly, avoid unnecessary trips on such treacherous weather.
