A blizzard continues to slam the Midwest, slowing down truckers making deliveries or trying to get home for the weekend.
Drivers have had a rough time since the storm began Thursday, with some of them skidding off roads, flipping or getting caught in snow drifts. Issues will continue Friday, with some storm impacts possibly lasting into the weekend.
Major cities within the storm’s impact zone include Minneapolis-St. Paul; Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; and Kansas City, Missouri. Major interstates in the impact zone include I-29, I-35, I-80, I-90 and I-94.
Several inches of additional snowfall could pile up Friday in parts of eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, northeast Kansas, northern Missouri, western Iowa and southwestern Minnesota. Winds in these areas will reach 40 to 50 mph. The combination of snowfall and intense wind will cause hazardous whiteout conditions, as well as some power outages and disruptions to local and regional supply chains.
Snowfall and winds won’t be as intense across Wisconsin, Illinois and eastern Iowa, but drivers could hit periods of reduced visibility in these places.
The slow-moving storm will gradually fade from west to east Friday night as it heads into the Northeast, impacting mainly interior sessions of that region. However, occasional snow showers could linger in the Midwest over the weekend.
Also, a broad region west and south of the blizzard will continue to get pounded by dangerous winds Friday. Drivers will run into an elevated risk of rollovers across eastern parts of Wyoming and Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle, as well as central and western sections of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. Gusts in some of these areas could exceed 60 mph.