After the warm weather experienced by much of the nation over the Christmas Holiday, extreme winter weather struck the nation from Maine to California.

In the Midwest, a bomb cyclone brought blizzard conditions that included whiteouts at the beginning of the week. Driving was treacherous and a 100 mile stretch of Interstate 35 - from just north of Iowa’s capitol city Des Moines to the Minnesota border - was closed for nearly 24 hours. 

Snowfall throughout the Midwest ranged from 5” to 24”. Dangerous wind chills of minus 30 degrees were felt in northern Minnesota and North Dakota. 

The weather triggered power outages for an estimated 350,000 customers, nearly one-third of them were in Michigan.

The storm turned east and added to snow that had already fallen across portions of the Northeast including Pennsylvania and New York. Travel was difficult and more than 90 car crashes were reported in Vermont alone.

Over 9,000 flight delays were experienced around the country.

In the West, heavy rains and strong winds from a series of powerful winter storms made for the wettest Christmas season to hit Southern California in years. High water trapped a few residents that needed to be rescued. 

The inclement weather triggered widespread mudslides and debris flows leaving several homes and streets filled with mud. 

High winds are expected throughout the region in the coming days with two more storms forecast for later this week. 

For Market to Market, I’m David Miller

contact: miller@iowapbs.org