BOSTON (news agencies) — February’s end is bringing wild weather to much of the United States, with record heat allowing for golf in Wisconsin and outdoor food trucks in Minnesota, along with an increased fire risk across much of the Great Plains. But blinding snow in the Northwest is blowing eastward, and places like Chicago should see temperatures swinging dramatically from balmy to bitter cold again.
“Definitely not the weather we would expect in February. It’s usually super snowy, freezing, you know, ice everywhere. And so we are just trying to take advantage of a very nice week this week,” said Tania Sepulveda, a 30-year-old Chicago therapist who was “working from home” Monday, using her laptop in a grassy spot along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The sunny weather won’t last that long. A powerful storm started dumping snow that could reach several feet in higher elevations of the West promises a return of winter conditions to the central U.S., where it’s been unseasonably warm. High winds are already blowing, raising the risk of wildfires across the Great Plains.
The National Weather Service warned that travel could be dangerous later Monday across parts of the Oregon Cascades and Northern Rockies, predicting near-blizzard conditions with one to two inches of snow an hour and winds reaching upwards of 65 mph (104 kph).
The storm will move into the Great Basin and Central Rockies Tuesday, carrying much colder temperatures and strong winds across the inner mountain West, said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. “We’ll be very wintry like for the next two days,” he added.
The West is just one place with unusual, and in some cases, dangerous weather conditions. Here is what to expect elsewhere.
This time of year should be the coldest in places like Chicago. But the city and many others across the central U.S. are getting an early taste of summer with temperatures in the 60s and 70s.