A long weekend of ferocious winter weather loomed across the US on Saturday, January 13, as a continuing wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the heartland, spread cold and snow coast to coast and cast a chill over everything from football playoffs to presidential campaigns.
As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a crazy quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern Plains to high wind warnings in New Mexico.
"It's, overall, been a terrible, terrible winter. And it came out of nowhere – two days," Dan Abinana said as he surveyed a snowy Des Moines, Iowa. He moved to the state from Tanzania as a child years ago, but said "You never get used to the snow."
In Portland, Oregon, medical examiners were investigating a hypothermia death as freezing rain and heavy snow fell in a city more accustomed to mild winter rains, and hundreds of people took shelter overnight at warming centers. Weather-related deaths already were reported earlier in the week in California, Idaho, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced a state of emergency Saturday, citing "very dangerous conditions." Parts of the state have received up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow in two separate storms over the past week, and wind chills were well below zero. "This event is not going away tonight. It's not going away tomorrow," Pillen said at a news conference "It's going to take a number of days."
About 1,700 miles of Nebraska highways were closed due to heavy snow. State police assisted over 400 stranded motorists, said Col. John A. Bolduc, head of the Nebraska State Patrol.
In Iowa, some cars were stuck for five hours in blowing snow on Interstate 80 after semitrailers jackknifed in slippery conditions, blocking traffic and leaving 100 vehicles trapped. Altogether, state troopers had handled 86 crashes and 535 motorist-assist calls since Friday, State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said.
Road crews were "working the snow-blowers like crazy," Dinkla said, but high winds were blowing snow right back onto roadways. Governors from New York to Louisiana warned residents to be prepared for worrisome weather.
Parts of Montana fell below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) Saturday morning, and the National Weather Service said similar temperatures were expected as far as northern Kansas, with minus 50 F (minus 46 C) possible in the Dakotas. In St. Louis, too, the National Weather Service warned of rare and "life-threatening" cold.
"We've had, now, multiple back-to-back storms" parading across the country, weather service meteorologist Zach Taylor said. That typically happens at least a couple of times in the US winter.
The temperature in parts of Iowa could dip as low as minus 14 F (minus 26 C) on Monday when the state's caucuses kick off the US presidential primary season. And that was to say nothing of the wind: Forecasters said it would be Wednesday before below-zero windchills go away.
Republican contenders Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump all canceled campaign events because of the winter storm. Electricity was out Saturday afternoon in hundreds of thousands of households and businesses, mainly in Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin, according to poweroutage.us.
In South Dakota, the morning temperature was minus 17 F (minus 27 C) at the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation, but a whipping wind of 30 mph (48 kph) made it feel like minus 48 F (minus 44 C). With a homeless shelter already at capacity, tribal leaders opened a gym for others needing shelter.
In New York state, Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of a "dangerous storm" as she announced that the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers NFL playoff game was postponed from Sunday to Monday. Residents of the county that includes Buffalo were told to stay off the roads starting at 9 pm Saturday, with the forecast calling for 1 to 2 feet (0.3 to 0.6 meters) or more of snow and winds gusting as high as 65 mph (105 kph).
Kansas City, Missouri, was set to host a frigid playoff game Saturday night, when the Chiefs host the Miami Dolphins. The temperature at kickoff was expected to be minus 2 F (minus 18 C), with the wind making it feel like minus 24 F (minus 31 C). Still, hundreds of fans lined up hours early outside the Arrowhead Stadium parking lots. Some came with ski goggles, heated socks and other winter gear they bought for the game.