A violent winter storm is expected to bring strong winds, heavy snow and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb twister swept across the northern United States, leaving tens of thousands of customers without power.
The storm that hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday brought sharply cold air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain that made travel dangerous. Forecasters said it was intensifying fast enough to meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone, a system that rapidly intensifies as pressure drops.
More than 153,000 customers were without power nationwide early Tuesday, more than a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us.
As Monday’s storm moves into Canada, the National Weather Service is predicting more severe weather conditions for the eastern United States, including rapid bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds known as snow squalls.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that power outages are expected in parts of the state on Tuesday, including the Syracuse metro area.
“If you are in the affected areas, please avoid all non-essential travel,” she posted on social media platform X.
Snow fell rapidly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Monday, with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow falling in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Ryan Metzger said more snow is expected to fall in the coming days, but totals will be much smaller.
Waves in Lake Superior were expected to reach 20 feet (6 meters) on Monday, causing all but one cargo ship to take shelter in port, MarineTraffic.com reported. Lake weather forecasts improved greatly after the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 with predicted waves as high as 16 feet (4.8 meters).
Fierce winds in Lake Erie sent water rushing toward the eastern end of the basin near Buffalo, N.Y., while water levels dropped on the western side of Michigan, exposing a normally submerged lake bed that even contained the remains of a car and a snowmobile.
Kevin Aldrich, 33, a maintenance worker in Monroe, Michigan, said he had never seen the lake recede so much and was surprised Monday to discover the remains of an old 1830s pier. He posted photos on social media of wooden piles sticking out several feet from the mud.
“These are places that are typically maybe 12 feet deep,” he said. “We can usually drive our boats over them.”
Wind chills plunged to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota on Monday. In northeastern West Virginia, rare, near-hurricane-force winds were recorded on a mountain near Dolly Swords, according to the National Weather Service.
In Iowa, high winds continued to blow snow across roadways after blizzard conditions eased Monday morning, closing more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Interstate 35. State police reported dozens of crashes during the storm, one of which resulted in a fatality.
On the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds were expected in parts of Southern California through Tuesday, raising concerns about downed trees in areas where soil is saturated from recent storms. Two more storms are expected later this week, and New Year’s Day rain could cause Pasadena’s Rose Parade to be soaked for the first time in about two decades.
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Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Corey Williams in Detroit; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut; and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.
