Jan. 12 (UPI) — Winter storm Gerri is blasting the nation’s midsection with snow and near white-out conditions, causing dangerous travel conditions as it cuts across the country.
The combination of heavy, blowing snow and ferocious winds will create havoc on the roadways, officials cautioned.
Gerri is forecast to travel through the Midwest, into the Great Lakes region and make its way to southeastern Canada by the weekend.
“Storms of this magnitude are fairly rare with recurrence around once or twice per decade,” The National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa, said in a blizzard warning issued for much of Iowa Thursday afternoon.
Gerri is the next in a pair of snow and ice packed winter storms in the last several days. Winter Storm Finn brought severe thunderstorms to parts of the South.
Gerri has left behind snowy and windy conditions in the Northwest, prompted blizzard warnings for mountain areas of Oregon and Washington earlier this week for the first time since 2012. Stevens Pass, Wash., reported blizzard conditions Tuesday and picked up 29 inches of snow in 30 hours through Tuesday evening.
Gerri is now is spreading snow into the Central Plains and Midwest while showers and thunderstorms are pushing through the South. Parts of Interstate 70 were closed in Kansas for a time Thursday evening.
Forecasters were calling for up to 10 inches of new snow in the Des Moines area.
Winter weather alerts have been issued in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions and travel could become dangerous in areas where winter storm warnings are in effect.
New blizzard warnings have been issued for parts of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin, where wind gusts as high as 40 mph will blow around snow and cause lower visibilities.
Winter storm warnings in the Midwest have been issued for heavy snow and strong winds. Cities in these warnings include Chicago; Grand Rapids and Milwaukee, Wis.; and Omaha, Neb.