PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — After the snow comes the cold.
The Rockies and Upper Midwest were on Tuesday getting the first icy touch of arctic air flowing south, and the rest of the Midwest and the East can expect a dose later in the week with temperatures forecast as much as 40 degrees below average.
The frigid air was pushed in by a powerful storm that hit Alaska with hurricane-force winds over the weekend.
A look at the storm and its effects:
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ISN'T IT STILL FALL?
Winter is still more than a month away, but it doesn't feel like it.
Up to 16 inches of accumulating snow is forecast Tuesday for parts of northern Wisconsin, and up to 2 feet is expected in Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Wednesday. Both areas have already seen as much as a foot of snow this week.
Terri Sommerfeld, a clerk at Ace Hardware in Webster, Wisconsin, said the store usually sells six or seven snow blowers in a typical winter. That's how many the store has sold in two days.
"It hasn't been overly busy today, but the ones that are coming are buying snow blowers and shovels," she said.
The cold air coming with the snow will be around for a while, said Joe Calderone, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service.
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SNOW JOKE FOR FARMERS, BUT RANCHERS CAN BEAR IT
The storm stirred anxiety for some farmers in Minnesota and South Dakota whose corn had not yet been harvested. The corn can withstand the cold, but deep snow may delay farmers getting it out of fields.
But ranchers in the Dakotas were surprisingly upbeat with only a few inches of snow in the forecast, after intense storms in October 2013 killed at least 43,000 cattle that hadn't yet developed their heavy protective winter coats.
This year, "we've had enough cool weather that they're haired up like bears" said South Dakota Stockgrowers Association President Bob Fortune, who ranches near Belvidere, South Dakota. "They can take winter now."
Stockgrowers Executive Director Silvia Christen said, "Everybody seems pretty prepared. Everybody's pretty calm."
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READY. SET. WAIT.
If you're flying in the coming days, expect some delays.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport saw the brunt of the cancellations and delays Monday, with a little more than a third of flights grounded or late, according to Flightaware.com.
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KEEP CALM AND SHOVEL ON
The snow got a mixed reception Monday in Minneapolis, where the first inch tripled morning drive times. At one point, the weather turned to sleet, and tiny pellets stung uncovered faces and hands. Crews were plowing, shoveling or brushing off sidewalks, and snowplows did several loops around city streets.
Richard Anderson, who was decorating small trees outside Seven Steakhouse, was downcast.
"As a professional holiday decorator you'd think I'd appreciate it. But I appreciate it when I'm all finished, and I'm finally sitting down and enjoying my own Christmas tree," Anderson said. "It's wet, cold, sticks to you. It's freezing on your jacket as it's raining. What do you call it? Rain, sleet and snow. And it's bitter. It's really bitter. It's not very nice."
Elsewhere, in Minnesota, the State Patrol said at least two people were killed in accidents on icy roads and troopers handled 475 crashes and more than 700 spinouts statewide by Monday evening.
In eastern Wisconsin, snow-covered roads were blamed for a school bus crash that sent the driver and an aide to a hospital, WBAY-TV reported.
In Chicago, some people were savoring breezy but mild weather near 60 before unseasonably cold freezing temperatures arrive Wednesday.
"I just wanted to enjoy one of the last nice days," said 44-year-old Joe Kauda, of the Chicago suburb of Carol Stream.
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Associated Press writers Amy Forliti in Minneapolis; Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Kerry Lester in Chicago contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/arctic-blast-rockies-midwest_n_6137354.html?utm_hp_ref=travel&ir=Travel and provided by entertainment-movie-news.com
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