Winter will soon come to an end, but on its way out, Mother Nature unleashed a fury of snow, ice and whiteout conditions that wreaked havoc from parts of Canada down to the northern tier of the United States. Meanwhile, the South battled torrential flooding as states of emergency were declared, and a Chicago man’s intense rescue from the largest of the Great Lakes was captured on camera. Here’s a glance back at the week in weather news.
Cross-country winter storm leaves crews, residents digging out of several inches of snow
With a little under a month away until the vernal equinox occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, people from the Rockies to Upper Midwest might be scratching their heads wondering what happened to Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day prediction of an early spring. Winter held its firm grip on the regions earlier this week as a snowstorm first rolled across the U.S. down from Canada into the Pacific Northwest over the weekend.
From there, the havoc ensued across multiple states. In upstate New York on Tuesday, residents were shoveling away 5 inches of snow by midday. The storm made travel tricky in several spots, including parts of the Upper Midwest, where the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) warned drivers to expect delays on the slippery, snow-covered roads. Crews had worked through Monday night to clear the roads after upwards of 5 inches of snow fell in some locations.
Accident after accident was reported Tuesday morning in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as KSTP-TV Josie Smith reported. Just the day before, the treacherous roads in eastern Minnesota led to a crash that left a 30-year-old woman in critical condition. Among the fender benders and wrecks, many semitruck drivers stood no chance on the slick highways. “Whoa!” Smith tweeted Tuesday morning. “Another jack-knifed semi!”
Parts of the Midwest were left blanketed by snow Monday into Tuesday, triggering a number of travel delays in the Colorado Springs metro area and causing multiple accidents along Interstate 25 and several rollover crashes near Walsenburg, Colorado. With some areas near Colorado Springs getting as much as 5 inches of snow, Tuesday marked the city’s 10th day experiencing snow during the month of February, the 10th most for the month since 2003.
The snowstorm also blew through western Montana as the week kicked off, with snow squall warnings and winter storm advisories in effect late Sunday into Monday amid record snowfall in some places. The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that the 3.2 inches that fell over Missoula by early Monday afternoon replaced the previous record of 2.5 inches from 2018. Nine inches of snow was reported in Pattee Canyon, which lies at an elevation of 4,500 feet in southeastern Missoula.
States of emergency declared as flooding swamps South
While upper regions of the country were battling a snowstorm, “historic, unprecedented” flooding continued to cause significant problems across the southern U.S. this week in states including Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.
Some governors issued states of emergency, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday. “The significant amount of rain that has fallen across Alabama recently has caused flooding in several portions of the state,” she tweeted.
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Abandoned vehicles are semi submerged in floodwater from the Pearl River in northeast Jackson, Miss., Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020. Residents of Jackson braced Sunday for the possibility of catastrophic flooding in and around the Mississippi capital as the Pearl River rose precipitously after days of torrential rain. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) |
On Saturday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made the same call as the Pearl River reached major flood stage over the weekend near Jackson. It crested at 36.67 feet on Monday, down slightly from the projected crest of 38 feet, according to the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District.
The river’s record crest happened in 1979 at 43.28 feet. Now, after cresting at the third-highest level in history, high water levels of Pearl River are slowly receding, taking the river out of major flood stage.
Popular inland ocean approaches record water level heights
The Southern flooding also contributed to rising water levels of Georgia’s “inland ocean” – Lake Lanier. Levels are at a more-than-55-year high, thanks to recent heavy rainfall. On Wednesday, the lake swelled to within a foot of its highest-ever level that was recorded in April 1964.
The amount of precipitation the area has received lately is above average. In fact, the region has had more rainfall during February’s first fortnight than it normally receives on average for the entire month, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Danielle Knittle, who added that the norm for February is 5.28 inches.
“Going back to the start of the year, their normal precipitation through Feb. 17 is 8.24 inches, but this year has seen nearly 15 inches recorded,” Knittle said.
Parts of North Carolina sees first snowfall since 2018
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This radar animation shows the storm system moving through the Southeast on Feb. 20-21. (Image/AccuWeather) |
A whopping 437 days. That’s how long it had been since accumulating snow fell across central North Carolina until this week.
A fast-moving storm brushed the Southeast with rain and snow from Thursday into Friday. The snow turned areas into a winter wonderland, but it also had detrimental effects on travel.
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The North Carolina Highway Patrol urged motorists to drive with caution on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, as icy conditions proved hazardous. (Twitter/ @NCSHP) |
Highway patrol officials in North Carolina urged residents to stay off the roads due to icy conditions on Friday morning. A state capitol police officer was involved in an accident in Raleigh while driving to work on Friday. She was reportedly treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Even though it wasn’t a blockbuster storm, some areas, like Franklin, Virginia, (5.1 inches) and Gates, North Carolina, (5 inches), received more snow than New York City has picked up all season (4.8 inches).
Dramatic rescue caught on camera as man slips into icy Lake Michigan
A Chicago man likely saw his 22 years of life flashing before his eyes last weekend after slipping into the bone-chilling waters of Lake Michigan amid temperatures of 17 degrees Fahrenheit – several degrees lower than usual.
Around 7 a.m. on Feb. 15, the Chicago Police Department got the call that a person had plunged beneath the river’s icy surface. The heroic rescue efforts of the SWAT team were captured on video as they worked to save the yet-to-be-identified man. That 10-minute rescue clip has since been viewed thousands of times on social media.
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SWAT officers arrived on the scene after receiving a report of a person falling into the icy water. (Chicago Police Department) |
The video shows the man slipping on the ice next to the lake, getting up and continuing to walk along the water’s edge. From there, he walks out of the camera’s frame, so the moment he fell was not seen in the clip. A nearby jogger saw him fall into the lake and tried unsuccessfully flagging down passing vehicles.
Not long after, rescuers arrived as the 22-year-old struggled to keep his head above the frigid water. Two officers were able to pull him out, and he was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
“A special thank you also goes out to the individual who looked out for their fellow Chicagoan and flagged down assistance from our first responder community,” the Chicago Police Department stated in a Facebook post.
Storm Dennis lashes UK, northern Europe with strong gusts, flooding rainfall
Northern Europe started off the week recovering from the wrath of Storm Dennis after it tore through the region over the weekend, killing at least three people and triggering devastating flooding as parts of the region were still bouncing back from Storm Ciara. Dennis lashed the United Kingdom and Ireland through north-central Europe with heavy rain and powerful wind gusts.
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An emergency worker rescues a girl in a flooded street after Storm Dennis in Hereford, Britain February 17, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble |
Here’s a quick look at some of the strongest gusts reported. Reykjavik, Iceland, experienced winds of 70 mph on Friday morning, while a gust of 89 mph was reported west of the capital in the town of Keflavik. Parts of the Scottish Highlands were whipped with the worst of the storm’s winds, with Aonach Mor getting pounded with 118-mph gusts.
Outside of the U.K., a gust of 173 mph was reported in Brocken, Germany. Those strong winds knocked over trees, injuring at least nine people in weather-related car accidents across the country.
U.K. airports including London’s Heathrow and Gatwick faced several delays and cancellations Saturday into Sunday, with planes braving the conditions over Heathrow having to battle a strong crosswind.
As rivers flooded across the U.K. amid a record number of flood alerts and warnings, some areas had rainfall amounts between 2 and 4 inches due to Dennis, and the Crai Reservoir in Wales recorded 6.20 inches in 48 hours.
Chain-reaction crash involving 200 vehicles kills 2 in Montreal
Things took a deadly turn on Highway 15 in Québec, Canada, on Wednesday as a deadly 200-vehicle pileup claimed two lives and injured dozens of other people. The crashes were triggered by sudden whiteout conditions that made it nearly impossible for drivers to see the road and vehicles ahead of them.
“The pileup was likely the result of a snow squall that moved through between 7 and 9 a.m.,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio. “Similar to a squall line in the summertime, winds can pick up quite dramatically and snow can fall heavily in a short period of time.”
Emergency crews worked as quickly as they could to rescue those trapped in their vehicles and had to use saws to free people stuck in at least nine vehicles, the Montreal Gazette reported. The highway was reopened and back to normal around 1 a.m. Thursday.