Heavy snow and high winds continued to sweep across much of the Midwest with near-blizzard force on Tuesday, causing highway closures in Nebraska and flight cancellations in Colorado.
The storm that threatened to impact turnout in Monday’s Iowa Caucuses moved in more slowly than expected, but came in force on Tuesday, bringing high winds and low visibility to the Hawkeye State.
In Nebraska this morning, Cale Carlson, a farmer in Marquette, Nebraska, tweeted images of 3 feet of snow pressed up to his door by blistering winds, along with the hashtag: “#snowmageddon2016.”
The bulk of the storm reached Nebraska and Iowa Tuesday morning and afternoon. At 9 a.m., Des Moines, Iowa, got sustained winds of 29 mph with gusts at 43 mph, while visibility was between a quarter-mile and three quarters of a mile, close to blizzard conditions. A blizzard has sustained winds or frequents gusts of 35 mph or greater, and snow that restricts visibility to a quarter-mile or less for three hours or longer, according to the National Weather Service.
There was a chance of winter weather in Iowa Monday night during the caucuses there, but snow didn’t begin to enter the Hawkeye State until after 8 p.m. That moisture moved more slowly; the heavy precipitation didn’t begin until after 10 p.m.
Police posted time-lapse video to Twitter of passable but treacherous highways around Omaha, while the Nebraska State Patrol warned of a large section of Interstate 80 in mid-state closed due to low visibility.
The weather also is affecting air travel in the region. Denver International Airport tweeted Tuesday morning: “About 125 canceled flights,” and a number of flights were delayed up to an hour or more, according to flydenver.com. The airport said they have “500 trained employees and 250 pieces of equipment [to] help keep runways clear.”