CNN
 Jamie
Ritzel of Detroit clears the gutters near a stranded snow removal
truck in front of his home on Sunday
With winter
still officially four days off, freezing weather Monday had a
grip on much of the United States.
Wide stretches
of the upper Midwest are under snow or winter storm advisories,
with several inches of snow expected in Des Moines, Chicago and
Milwaukee and elsewhere in the region.
And more snow
could be coming to parts of the deep South, which was hit over
the weekend by severe storms and unusually cold temperatures.
'It is
unusual'
Quirky weather
over the weekend brought a deadly tornado to Alabama while the
Northeast had a combination of record warmth and flooding.
Boston hit
64 degrees on Sunday, breaking the record of 62 set in 1984. At
the same time, wind gusting to 50 mph caused power outages across
New England and nearly toppled a church steeple in New Bedford,
Massachusetts.
"It is
unusual," said Charlie Foley, a weather service meteorologist
in Taunton, Massachusetts. "Normally, we don't start off
with the copious amounts of precipitation and the numerous thunderstorms.
This is very atypical weather for December."
In New Bedford,
fire crews used a crane to try to stabilize the steeple at Our
Lady of Fatima Church, finally lowering it to the ground after
wind left it leaning precariously.
The rain triggered
floodwaters as high as 3 feet in Pittsfield and other areas of
western Massachusetts.
Heavy rains
prompted the declaration of states of emergency in 10 communities
in New Jersey and New York. In Albany, New York, where more than
4.5 inches of rain fell, city schools were closed Monday.
Wind and lightning
left 9,000 people without power in New Jersey, and gusts reached
70 mph in Keansburg, near the New Jersey shore.
Midwest:
Wind chill at 30 below zero
Up to 9.5
inches of snow fell in Michigan, leading to the partial collapse
Sunday of a roof at a Ramada Inn near Flint.
In Indiana,
where wind chill readings reached 30 degrees below zero early
Sunday, a man was found dead near Interstate 65, apparently from
exposure. "His car was found on the interstate where it looked
like he had slid off. From there it seemed he tried to walk to
get help," said Ryan Batts of the Boone County Sheriff's
Department.
 Firemen
rescue two people Sunday at Schuylerville, New York, from a flooded
area near the Hudson River in Washington County
Shivering
South
In the South,
tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on Saturday left 12 people
dead. Most victims died in Tuscaloosa, where the twister's path
was 12 miles long and more than a third of a mile wide. Dozens
of people were injured. The state has requested federal disaster
assistance.
The same storm
system is blamed for blowing down trees and causing flooding and
scattered power outages in Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia.
By Sunday,
a cold front that moved into the South drove temperatures down
more than 50 degrees in a few hours.
Thousands
of East Texas residents who lost electricity during ice storms
may not have power for weeks, utility company officials said.
In Arkansas, crews worked to restore power to more than 100,000
customers.
 Tim
Bullock and Emilee Bunker dig snow caves in McCammon, Idaho, Sunday
West: Deadly
avalanche, closed highways
In Montana,
where bitterly cold temperatures had weakened the snowpack, two
snowmobilers were killed in an avalanche Sunday.
A rash of
accidents in Wyoming led to the closing of parts of Interstate
80, U.S. 30 and U.S. 85.
In Colorado,
blowing snow kicked up by gusts of up to 60 mph severely reduced
visibility, forcing the closing of a stretch of Interstate 70.
Want relief?
The weird, wintry weather stayed far from Southern California,
where people flocked to beaches Sunday to enjoy record-high temperatures
in the upper 80s.
The heat wave
is expected to continue Monday.
|
