'Significant' winter storm threatens blizzard conditions across Central US, impacts up to 200 million Americans
By Travis Fedschun | Fox News
National forecast for Tuesday, April 9
Janice Dean has your FoxCast.
Even though spring may have sprung across much of the country, a major late-season winter storm is threatening to bring blizzard conditions to the Central U.S. -- and the "bomb cyclone's" impact could be felt nationwide.
The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center said Tuesday the developing "significant" storm system will first bring snow over the Cascades before spreading over the Northern Rockies into the Upper Midwest by midweek.
"A blizzard my friends, in April, it's happening across portions of South Dakota up towards Nebraska and then into Wisconsin," Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said on "FOX & friends." "We could see over a foot of snow and windy conditions and the potential for flooding ahead of this, some ice as well."
The storm moving in from the Pacfic Ocean is forecast to intensify and form into a new inland "bomb cyclone." A bomb cyclone is a rapid drop in air pressure — at least 24 millibars in 24 hours — and often is over or near oceans or seas because it requires warm moist air smacking into cold dry air, along with volatile weather from the jet stream.
Winter storm and blizzard warnings stretch across the Central U.S. from a late-season winter storm. (Fox News)
Heavy snow and strong winds from the storm are forecast to produce "life-threatening" travel conditions across the region starting Wednesday, according to the WPC. Blizzard conditions are expected as winds intensify late Tuesday into Wednesday.
"The heavy wet snow may also lead to power outages," the NWS said.
This would be the second such storm in less than a month. The March 13 storm caused massive flooding in the Midwest, a blizzard in Colorado and Wyoming, and produced winds of between 96 mph and 110 mph.
Besides heavy snow, rain will stretch across parts of the central U.S. that are still dealing with river flooding, including Iowa and Illinois. There is also the threat of severe weather for the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys through Thursday.
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