A powerful winter storm tore across the Midwest and Great Lakes on Saturday, snarling post-Thanksgiving travel with heavy snow, slick highways, and difficult driving conditions.
Why It Matters Now
The weather system arrived during one of the year’s busiest travel weekends, disrupting trips for millions of people heading home after Thanksgiving.
Major airports in Chicago and St. Louis reported around an hour of delays on Saturday morning. Forecasters are also tracking a separate winter storm that could bring freezing rain and heavy snow to the Northeast early next week, raising the prospect of continued travel headaches.
Key Details
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued winter storm warnings and advisories from Montana to Ohio, with some locations already topping 8 inches of snow by Saturday morning. On westbound Interstate 70 near Terre Haute, Indiana, at least 45 vehicles were involved in crashes, prompting highway closures. Authorities said there were no serious injuries.
Northern Iowa saw more than 8 inches of snow by early Saturday, with similar totals expected in Chicago, other parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. Meteorologists warned that snowfall rates could exceed one inch per hour in some areas, creating treacherous conditions for both road and air travel.
The same system is also fueling thunderstorms and heavy rain from southern Missouri into Louisiana and Texas. Across the Chicago area, motorists contended with snow-covered and slushy roads as strong winds whipped across Lake Michigan.
While conditions have been dangerous, they have not yet met the formal threshold for a blizzard warning, which requires sustained winds of at least 35 mph, visibility below a quarter mile, and those conditions persisting for more than three hours.
On-the-Ground Warnings
Grant County, Indiana, Sheriff Del Garcia urged residents, in comments to the Associated Press, to stay off the roads: “Stay home, have a nice cup of hot chocolate, watch some TV, play some games.”
AccuWeather meteorologist Alyssa Glenny told Newsweek: “The corridor to face the most notable disruptions with the weekend storm include those within the six-to-12-inch snow bands, which includes Des Moines, IA; Chicago, IL; Green Bay, WI; Milwaukee, WI; and Grand Rapids; MI, to name a few. These locations are projected to pick up the heaviest snowfall rates and totals from the start of the weekend into part of the day on Sunday, which could make for rather challenging and dangerous at times.”
She added that forecasters are also watching a separate storm expected to develop in the South-Central U.S. and track northeast: “Looking ahead, we are closely monitoring a separate storm that will originate from the South-Central U.S. and advance northeastward through the Southeast and into the Northeast corridor. This storm will produce a swath of snow from Kansas and Nebraska through the Ohio Valley and into New England.”
What’s Next
Travelers are urged to keep a close eye on updated forecasts as the current storm continues to move through the Midwest and Great Lakes and a potential second storm targets the Northeast early next week.
Road conditions are likely to remain hazardous through the weekend in affected areas, and flight delays and cancellations may persist as snowfall and poor visibility continue to impact major travel hubs.
