Ice storms, blizzards pound central Plains on day after Christmas

From an ice storm in North Dakota that sealed windows shut to blizzard conditions in Colorado causing hundreds of airport delays and cancellations, a winter storm pummeled much of the central United States on Tuesday, the day after Christmas.

“The heavy snow conditions in the Plains should be slowly alleviating today, but it’ll be very slow,” said Weather Prediction Center forecaster David Roth. “Even when the snow ends, the high winds should keep visibility near zero — whiteout conditions — for a decent part of today.”

Laura Schmidt-Dockter, a resident of Bismarck, North Dakota, wore ice spikes on her shoes as she walked outside to the trash can. A neighbor took to the street on ice skates.

At Denver International Airport there were over 530 flight delays and 23 cancellations as of Tuesday afternoon, according to tracking website FlightAware. Blizzard conditions on Colorado’s plains closed Interstate 70 eastbound from the outer edge of the Denver area to Kansas. Travelers were also unable to head westbound into Colorado from Kansas on the highway because of the threat posed by high winds.

Blizzard warnings were in effect mid-Tuesday for western portions of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, along with eastern portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories remained in place in South Dakota, North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

On Christmas Day, one person was killed and three others were injured in Kansas, when the driver of a pickup truck lost control on snow and ice and collided head-on with a sport utility vehicle. 

Officials in South Dakota said on social media that some people had ignored the no-travel advisory issued Monday evening. The advisory meant no one should have been on highways or backroads because of the whiteout, they said.

On Monday, wind gusts howled as high as 67 miles per hour (108 kilometers per hour) in Oakes, North Dakota, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Megan Jones.

The ice storm has affected highways throughout the eastern parts of the state, with Interstate 29 from Grand Forks to the Canadian border closed until Tuesday afternoon, and no travel advised in south-central parts of the state. Freezing rain began in Fargo on Monday afternoon and expanded westward, Jones said, and as much as three-quarters of an inch of freezing rain fell in Jamestown.




(Photo Nebraska State Patrol via AP)