Midwest Slammed by Snow, Ice on Christmas

(AP)  Updated 10:31 p.m. ET

Residents across the Midwest and the Plains who made it home for Christmas were digging out on Friday after a fierce snowstorm while those who spent the night in airports and shelters tried to resume their journeys. Meteorologists warned that roads across the region remained dangerous.

The National Weather Service said blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.

Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories were issued for parts of the East Coast on Friday, but the region was largely spared.

Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative's home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.

"It was snow-pocalypse. It was wicked," said Mews, 25. "We thought about turning around and going back."

They decided to continue when the surge passed minutes later.

Others weren't as lucky.

Army Sgt. Mark Matthey was spending Friday night at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sioux Falls, S.D., after Interstate 90 closed. Matthey, 26, left Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday for his hometown of Spokane, Wash., in hopes of making it by late Friday or early Saturday.

Instead, he spent Friday afternoon drinking coffee, watching TV and making friends at the truck stop. He planned to find a spot to sleep on the floor or in the cab of his truck.

Matthey said he and the other travelers were in decent spirits.

"Everybody has the attitude that you have to play the cards you were dealt," he said. "No use in getting upset about something you can't control."

Interstates also were closed in North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. Meteorologists warned that massive snow drifts and blustery winds could cause whiteouts across the northern Plains. Officials urged travelers to stay home and pack emergency kits if they had to set out.

In Texas, volunteer firefighters and sheriff's deputies rescued hundreds of people stranded along Interstate 44 and Texas State Highway 287 near Wichita Falls. The area recorded up to 13 inches of snow, said Doug Speheger, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

"It's really been horrible," Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said. "Although we live in North Texas and get a lot of cold weather, we weren't prepared for the significant amount of snow that we've received."

Only two of the sheriff department's vehicles have four-wheel drive, so rescuers used their own pickups and the heavy 5-ton brush trucks normally used to fight fires to get to motorists, many of whom ran out of gas while they were stuck in traffic stalled by the storm.

"It was exciting at first to wake up and go, 'Oh, this will be great. We'll have a white Christmas,"' Wichita Falls Mayor Lanham Lyne said. "Then it kept snowing. As the roads became impassable, then we started to worry."

Even residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area briefly experienced a white Christmas, their first in more than 80 years. Not since Dec. 25, 1926 — when 6 inches fell on Dallas and Collin counties — had the area had a true postcard-looking Christmas.

But by late afternoon, the 3 inches of snow measured at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Christmas Eve was all but melted.

Winds were gusting from 45 mph to 60 mph across the Dakotas and Nebraska on Friday. Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.

The storm also grounded flights at South Dakota's biggest airports. Sioux Falls Regional Airport was closed until Saturday morning at the earliest, manager Dan Letellier told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Flights also were canceled at Rapid City Regional Airport and Pierre Regional Airport. The total number of flights affected wasn't immediately available.

About 200 people were stuck overnight at Oklahoma's largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways, said Mark Kranenburg, director of the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. The airport reopened Friday morning, but only one runway was operational.

Most of the stranded passengers were gone by Friday afternoon. While some were able to catch flights, many simply went home. Kranenburg predicted it would be two or three days before all three runways were open and flights resumed as scheduled.

The 14 inches of snow in Oklahoma City broke a record of 2.5 inches set back in 1914.

The previous record for Christmas Eve in Duluth, which has gotten more than 22 inches in two days, was 3 inches in 1893, said Kevin Kraujalis, a National Weather Service meteorologist. By the time the storm is over, it could be one of the 10 worst in Duluth's recorded history.

With heavy winds producing snow drifts as deep as 5 feet, "it's awful, it's just awful," Kraujalis said. "It's a big workout just walking outside to check my weather equipment."

Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, five people in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, two in Minnesota and one each in North Dakota, Missouri and New Mexico.

[formrusmcsgt]

I spent one winter dealing with snow.

That was more than enough.

[troutfishyman]

LOL!

The usual contingent of warming deniers here ... they still can't distinguish weather from climate.

[CPJ44]

Trouty is either a young kid that hasn't been around long enough to have heard the doom and gloom predictions from environmentalists for the last 40 years.

Or a far left liberal that will believe anything Obama or Al Gore has to say.

The best way to beat a far left liberal in an argument is to state the facts. They can't beat the facts so they have to go on emotion.

[JohnGalt800]

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003596/index.html

Each year, scientists at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. A rapid warming trend has occurred over the past 30 years. Calendar year 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis of surface air temperature measurements. In this analysis, 2008 is the ninth warmest year in the period of instrumental measurements, which extends back to 1880. 2005 is the hottest year on record, and 2007 is tied with 1998 for second place. The Earth is experiencing the warmest level of the current interglacial period, or interval between ice ages, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years. This color-coded map displays a long term progression of changing global surface temperatures, from 1880 to 2008. Dark red indicates the greatest warming and dark blue indicates the greatest cooling.

[CPJ44]

40 years ago, Earth Day was touting the coming of a new ice age! They gave us 10-15 years before doom and gloom!

30 years ago, all the environmentalist scientists were still all touting global cooling!

20 years ago, the earth started getting warmer so these junk scientists needed to come up with a new doom and gloom theory. So Global Warming was born.

In 30-40 years, I wonder what will happen when the earth has another cooling cycle? Al Gore will take credit for saving the world and can justify the few billion that he will have made by then with his junk science and scare tactics.

[JohnGalt800]

Here are the facts, according to NASA. Where are your facts CPJ44?

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003596/index.html

Each year, scientists at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. A rapid warming trend has occurred over the past 30 years. Calendar year 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis of surface air temperature measurements. In this analysis, 2008 is the ninth warmest year in the period of instrumental measurements, which extends back to 1880. 2005 is the hottest year on record, and 2007 is tied with 1998 for second place. The Earth is experiencing the warmest level of the current interglacial period, or interval between ice ages, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years.

[Lickedy]

Yeah man, global warming is kicking ass in reverse !

[jankebenzone]

What! no global warming hand wringers here bemoaning the loss of ice and snow? Must all be hibernating or they headed south for the winter. Guess I can't blame them for not showing up when there's a blizzard howling out side. But rest assured, they'll be back when the heat returns to resume preaching the doom and gloom fanaticism. Oh well , have a very merry christmas everyone ,forget the snow today and enjoy with your family and friends.

[oilfix]

How's that anthropogenic climate change working for you?
It's only going to get worse.

[sandy19731]

Your ignorance is showing.

[oilfix]

"where is all this ice and snow coming from???"

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1398
Seems the avant-garde are thinking argiculture and civilization was a
result of the most stable climate the planet has seen, last 100,000
years. No more.

[erb0087]

The CBSNews home page link to this story shows a man shoveling through a big snowdrift.

Don't try that unless you're in good shape.

You're risking a back injury, or worse, if you're not.

Shovelling snow in cold weather is about the most strenuous exercise you can do.

[mike18881]

You are so right, don't ever do it, if you do, do a little at a time taking breaks, a lot of breaks. The snow is very heavy and could cause heart attacks.

[edgy44]

I was out on I-40 at noon, and this 18-wheel truck came zipping past in the left lane (no pavement showing) while everyone else was using the right lane at 35 MPH with asphalt showing. About 30 minutes later we passed him jack-knifed off the right side of the road. We all gave him the Hawaiian Peace Sign as we passed...

[ender3rd]

Told you it was global cooling. lol

[kbbpll]

In another weather-related catastrophe, the sun caused 19 deaths across the nation's eastern seaboard. The wave of traffic accidents blamed on the sun is slowly moving west.