Ready or not, snowstorm blankets Rockies, Upper Midwest as South plunges into deep freeze
St. Cloud, Minn., got 13 inches of snow, a new record for November. In Colorado, temperatures dropped nearly 30 degrees over the course of an hour as the cold front moved in. Sub-freezing temperatures reached as far south as Dallas.
Teresa Goodson walks to work in ski goggles in downtown St. Paul during the first snowstorm of the season on Monday. Though the snow will largely stop in Minnesota by Tuesday afternoon, said Joe Calderone, senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen, the state won’t be 'seeing any warm up any time soon.'
Leila Navidi/The Star Tribune/AP
Boulder, Colo.
Residents of the Rockies and Upper Midwest woke up to snow and arctic temperatures on Veterans Day, as the first big snowstorm of the season plowed through a big swath of the US.
Minnesota was hit the hardest, with parts of the state getting over a foot of snow and more than 150 flights canceled at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. St. Cloud, Minn., reported more than 13 inches, a record snowstorm for November.
In Colorado, temperatures plunged from a balmy mid-60s Monday morning to temperatures near the single digits by nightfall – with temperatures dropping nearly 30 degrees over the course of an hour as the cold front moved in. The Denver area was braced for more several more inches of snow and even colder temperatures over the next couple days.
The cold snap is extending into the Eastern US and the South, albeit with less ferocity than the Midwest. Sub-freezing temperatures reached as far down as Dallas.
"Freezing temperatures are possible in parts of the South and East that have not yet had such temperatures this season," AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski told USA Today.
Super Typhoon Nuri is responsible for the storm, meteorologists say, with the National Weather Service calling it one of strongest non-tropical storms on record, and with far-reaching effects.
The snow is expected to taper off for most of the country on Tuesday, but don't expect the temperatures to warm up anytime soon. Forecasters have called for more polar temperatures next week, and in the Upper Midwest, it's likely to stay below freezing for nearly two weeks.