Huge spring storm may dump 2 feet of snow on upper U.S. Midwest

Updated 3:42 p.m. ET

Blizzards, rains and howling winds will rake the central U.S. as a potentially record-breaking storm sweeps from Montana to Minnesota, delaying corn and wheat planting and potentially flooding rivers.

‘Pretty significant spring snow storm’

The giant storm will strengthen as it crosses the Rocky Mountains, dumping more than two feet (60 centimeters) of snow in South Dakota and as much as 10 inches in Minneapolis, the National Weather Service said.

“It’s a pretty significant spring snow storm,” Michael Schichtel, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center, said by telephone.

The storm, which will pack near-record low pressure, could be on par with the massive system that triggered flooding across Nebraska and Iowa last month. While temperatures won’t be frigid across the Great Plains, they will be just cold enough to bring snow instead of rain.

Mississippi River already at flood stage in areas

The Mississippi River is already at moderate-to-major flood stage in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. The Red River is at major flood stage in Fargo, North Dakota.

Water levels on the lower Mississippi are falling and the river should be able to handle the run off from this week’s storm, said Matt Roe, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. The Corps has begun to close the Bonnet Carre spillway upstream from New Orleans, which is designed to prevent flooding in the Louisiana city.

The current flood is comparable to deluges in 2016 and 2018, “even though this event is longer than those two floods combined,” Roe said by email. “We have the river remaining high through the 28-day extended forecast.”

The high water has restricted barge traffic to daylight only and has limited the amount of freight that can be hauled, said Austin Golding, president of Golding Barge Line in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Right now, the river is entirely navigable but the hardest parts to traverse are the bridges in Vicksburg and Baton Rouge.

“May will be nasty if it gets hot up north and the snow melt accelerates after this winter system they are encountering now,” Golding said.

Weather will whiplash between extremes in many places

This system’s icy reach won’t extend to Chicago, which will get rain and have a low of 39 Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) Wednesday before temperatures rebound into the high 50s by Thursday.

As the storm passes, weather will whiplash between extremes in many places. On Tuesday, Denver’s temperature reached 73 degrees, and it was forecast to climb to 80 later. In 36 hours, however, the city would be under a blizzard warning with readings set to plunge to 25, the weather service said. Cheyenne, Wyoming will go from 71 on Tuesday to 18 degrees late Wednesday.

This system’s icy reach won’t extend to Chicago, which will get rain and have a low of 39 Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) Wednesday before temperatures rebound into the high 50s by Thursday.

“U.S. farmers may be forced to plant more soybeans this year despite burgeoning inventory and poor prices as floods in the Midwest derail corn planting.” according to agriculture analysts Alvin Tai and Ashley Kim, .

While the storm bulldozes its way across the central U.S., mild air on the East Coast will keep temperatures in New York in the high 50s and low 60s through the rest of the week, the weather service said.

The snow and rain across the northern Midwest will delay corn and wheat planting, said Dan Hicks, a meteorologist with Freese-Notis Weather Services in Des Moines, Iowa. Further south, from Kansas to Southern Illinois, planting is unlikely to be interrupted.

The potentially big problem for farmers is the storm will be just one in a series of systems expected to sweep across the U.S. this month, Hicks said.

“I don’t see any long, dry periods into late April,” Hicks said.

Dry winds raise chances of wildfires at southern end of U.S.

At the southern end of the U.S., the system will bring dry winds from Southern California to West Texas, raising the chances of wildfires, Schichtel said. New Mexico, parts of southern Colorado and West Texas face the highest risk, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Related:

• ‘Unprecedented flooding’ predicted for spring: Here’s how to prepare
• California works to head off another season of deadly fires
• Insurance questions follow ice and snow property damage

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