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Powerful winter storm could dump feet of snow on parts of nation
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- The storm will continue across the West while “developing into a possible blizzard” in coming days, the National Weather Service warned.
- A stretch of California Highway 89 was closed due to heavy snow between in the Lake Tahoe area.
- Still unclear: The impact the storm will have on the Northeast.
A powerful winter storm crashing across the West slammed parts of California with heavy rains Sunday and promised to snarl travel with feet of snow in some areas from the mountains of the Golden State through the Midwest.
The storm will continue across the West while “developing into a possible blizzard” in coming days, the National Weather Service warned. The system was forecast to sweep across a wide swath of the nation from Colorado to Minnesota on Monday through Wednesday, with driving snow, high winds and freezing rain.
“Heavy snow will bring major impacts to many areas across the country,'” the weather service warned. “Travel could become impossible.”
A stretch of California Highway 89 was closed due to heavy snow in the Lake Tahoe area, the highway patrol said. Parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains could see five feet of snow and whiteout conditions Sunday and Monday, the weather service said.
As the storm rolls east, AccuWeather said parts of I-90 and I-94, the major highways of the Upper Midwest, could be forced to close as the snow piles higher.
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‘Major’ snowstorm forecast from Colorado to Minnesota
A strong low-pressure system forecast to form over Colorado and Kansas on Monday will pull moist air northward from the Gulf of Mexico, combining it with extremely cold air from the polar regions in Canada, AccuWeather Meteorologist Thomas Geiger explained.
” A major snowstorm is in the cards from Colorado to Minnesota into midweek,” he said.
The worst of the storm could hit late Tuesday into Wednesday, with snowfall rates as high as several inches per hour in some locations. Wind gusts could reach 60 mph, Geiger said.
Snow will continue to push eastward as the storm strengthens. Parts of Minnesota could see snow with any icy mix at times. Geiger warned that a tenth of an inch of ice can hazardous.
Some areas will see heavy glaze of ice
“Across much of central and southern Minnesota, a heavy glaze of ice may be more impactful than the snow,” Geiger said. Some areas of North and South Dakota that see only snow could see two feet of it, he said.
The storm could last all week, AccuWeather Meteorologist Lauren Hyde said. Still unclear: The impact it will have on the Northeast at week’s end. But heavy snow and ice may be on the way, forecasters say.
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