Winter Storm Bella Dumps Up to 16 Inches of Snow in Chicago Suburbs; Record November Snowstorm in Moline, Illinois

 

Published Nov 22 2015 09:45 PM EST

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Snow totals from Winter Storm Bella.

Winter Storm Bella not only brought the first, not to mention locally heavy, accumulating snow of the season for some in the Great Lakes and Midwest, but also was one of the heaviest November snowstorms of record for some.

(MORE: Science Behind Naming Winter Storms)

Parts of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, metro area picked up over a foot of snow in an intense snowband Friday. A similar setup impacted parts of northern Illinois on Saturday, including some of Chicagoland. Saturday afternoon, a band of heavier snow enhanced by Lake Michigan impacted Chicago, resulting in very low visibility as it pivoted through the area.

Despite lacking strong surface low pressure, these systems are notorious heavy snow generators in the Midwest. Below is a recap of the snow totals from Winter Storm Bella.

Snowfall Totals

Numerous locations from southeastern South Dakota to southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and lower Michigan have reported a foot or more of snow from the storm.

Here is a sampling of official snowfall totals around the area, by state:

• South Dakota: Tea (18 inches), Sioux Falls Regional Airport (7.2 inches)  
• Iowa: George (17 inches), Waterloo (12.7 inches), Dubuque (11.7 inches), Des Moines (6.9 inches)
• Nebraska: Near Bloomfield (16 inches), South Sioux City (6.5 inches), Valentine (4 inches)
• Minnesota: Worthington (8 inches)
• Illinois: Grayslake (16 inches), Chicago O'Hare (11.1 inches), Moline (9.9 inches), Rockford (8.6 inches),
• Wisconsin: Near Footville (17 inches), Janesville (11.5 inches), Milwaukee (6.7 inches), Madison (4.1 inches)
• Michigan: Howell (16.5 inches), Kalamazoo (9 inches), Flint (8 inches), Detroit (6 inches)
• Indiana: Crown Point (5 inches), Lafayette (3.5 inches), near South Bend (3 inches), Tipton (2 inches)

Bella also produced the season's first flakes as far south as northwest Arkansas Saturday morning, and left a dusting of snow in Springfield, Missouri, as well.



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Tropical Downpours to Target Midwest, Eastern US This Week

 

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© Provided by AccuWeather

 

 

Tropical moisture is set to stream across the Midwest and Eastern U.S. next week, leading to the most significant rainfall in a few weeks for many communities.

A large part of the Midwest and East has not experienced soaking rain since the start of October. That will change during the final days of October as tropical moisture enters the picture.

The exception to the lack of rain is the Carolinas where historic flooding ensued early in the month and additional rain about a week later led to more issues.

"[The ingredients in place next week] will be an upper-level storm system that is potent, a strong cold front and a connection with tropical moisture," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek said.

That moisture will be associated with the system that formed along the Texas coast Saturday night.
As the moisture is fed northward, the result will be rain spreading northward from the Deep South to the Midwest and East during late in the week. The rain will move in a general southwest-to-northeast fashion through Wednesday.

Cities in line for the rain next week include St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City. Eventually, the rain will also spread to Boston and Portland, Maine.

If enough cold air can be drawn into the backside of the storm, snow may also return to the Upper Midwest and northern Appalachians.

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Tornadoes : As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from search-and-rescue efforts to cleanup, the South braced for a third round of potentially deadly weather. Leaving 35 Dead in it's wake.

Tornadoes In Mississippi, Alabama Flatten Homes As Massive Storm Sweeps South

 | by  ADRIAN SAINZ and JEFF AMY

Posted: 04/28/2014 9:05 pm EDT Updated: 04/29/2014 3:35 pm EDT

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Ruth Bennett died clutching the last child left at her day care center as a tornado wiped the building off its foundation. A firefighter who came upon the body gently pulled the toddler from her arms.
"It makes you just take a breath now," said next-door neighbor Kenneth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left of Ruth's Child Care Center in this logging town of 6,600. "It makes you pay attention to life."

Widespread Damage And Casualties After Tornadoes Rip Through South

VILONIA, AR - APRIL 29: A passerby stops to look at damage caused by a tornado on Sunday evening, on April 29, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas. After deadly tornadoes ripped through the region leaving more than a dozen dead, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee are all under watch as multiple storms are expected over the next few days. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

 ...
Bennett, 53, was among at least 34 people killed in a two-day outbreak of twisters and other violent weather that pulverized homes in half a dozen states from Iowa to Tennessee. The child's fate was not immediately known.
As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from search-and-rescue efforts to cleanup, the South braced for a third round of potentially deadly weather Tuesday. Tornadoes usually strike in the late afternoon and evening.
One of the hardest-hit areas in Monday evening's barrage of twisters was Tupelo, Miss., where a gas station looked as if it had been stepped on by a giant.
Francis Gonzalez, who also owns a convenience store and Mexican restaurant attached to the service station, took cover with her three children and two employees in the store's cooler as the roof over the gas pumps was reduced to aluminum shards.
"My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second?" she said in Spanish.
On Tuesday, the whine of chain saws cut through the otherwise still, hazy morning in Tupelo. Massive oak trees, knocked over like toys, blocked roads. Neighbors helped one another cut away limbs.
"This does not even look like a place that I'm familiar with right now," said Pam Montgomery, walking her dog in her neighborhood. "You look down some of the streets, and it doesn't even look like there is a street."

AP

Tornado hits Mayflower, Ark.

Travel trailers and motor homes are piled on top of each other at Mayflower RV in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014.A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning tornadoes.

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.....

UPDATE 4-U.S. storm system that killed 16 causes tornado in Mississippi

Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:35am IST

* Tornado touches down in Mississippi
* More than 100 injured
* Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia at risk (Adds Mississippi governor)
By Colin Sims
VILONIA, Ark., April 28 (Reuters) - A ferocious storm system caused a twister in Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of people across the U.S. Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned tornadoes that killed 16 people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas and other states.
A tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi in the northern part of the state at about 3 p.m. (1800 GMT), damaging hundreds of homes, downing power lines and toppling trees, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant told CNN.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries after six instances of tornadoes touching down in the state.
"It is not over. This is going to be a prolonged storm," Bryant said.
Parts of Alabama, western Georgia and Tennessee also were at risk as the storm system that produced the series of tornadoes headed east toward the Mid-Atlantic states.
Rescue workers, volunteers and victims have been sifting through the rubble in the hardest-hit state of Arkansas, looking for survivors in central Faulkner County where a tornado reduced homes to splinters, snapped power lines and mangled trees.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said at least 14 people died statewide in the storm that authorities said produced the first fatalities of this year's U.S. tornado season. He previously told a news conference 16 had been killed but later said there was a mistake in calculation.

Nine of the victims came from the same street in the town of Vilonia, with a population of about 4,100, where a new intermediate school set to open in August was heavily damaged by a tractor trailer blown into its roof. A steel farm shop anchored to concrete was erased from the landscape.
Beebe told reporters of the capricious nature of tornadoes. He said a woman died when the door of her home's reinforced safe room collapsed, while a father and three daughters survived by seeking shelter in a bathtub that was flipped over in winds that leveled the house.
One person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma and another in Iowa, state authorities said.

'LONG ROAD TO HEALING'
"Everything is just leveled to the ground," Vilonia resident Matt Rothacher said. "It cut a zig-zag right through town."
Rothacher was at home with his wife and four children when the tornado passed through. While his home survived, The Valley Church where he serves as pastor was flattened.

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Severe Storms In South, Midwest Leave 35 Dead

 | by  By MELISSA NELSON-GABRIEL and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

Posted: 04/30/2014 4:18 am EDT Updated: 04/30/2014 9:59 pm EDT

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — People were plucked off rooftops or climbed into their attics to get away from fast-rising waters when nearly 2 feet of rain fell on the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast in the span of about 24 hours, the latest bout of severe weather that began with tornadoes in the Midwest.

On Wednesday, roads were chewed up into pieces or wiped out entirely and neighborhoods were inundated, making rescues difficult for hundreds of people who called for help when they were caught off guard by the single rainiest day ever recorded in Pensacola.

Boats and Humvees zigzagged through the flooded streets to help stranded residents. A car and truck plummeted 25 feet when portions of a scenic highway collapsed, and one Florida woman died when she drove her car into high water, officials said.

Near the Alabama-Florida line, water started creeping into Brandi McCoon's mobile home, so her fiance, Jonathan Brown, wrapped up her nearly 2-year-old son Noah in a blanket and they swam in neck-deep water to their car about 50 feet away.

Then, the car was flooded.

"Every which way we turned, there was a big ol' pile of water," she said.

Brown called 911 and eventually a military vehicle picked them up and took them to a shelter.

Kyle Schmitz was at his Pensacola home with his 18-month-old son Oliver on Tuesday night when heavy rain dropped during a 45-minute span. He gathered up his son, his computer and important papers and left.

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Eastern U.S. to Be Locked in Cold Until Start of February

Arctic Weather Bears Down On U.S. Midwest, Northeast

Reuters  |  Posted: 01/04/2014 4:02 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/23/2014 8:17 am EST

By Victoria Cavaliere

NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Many parts of the U.S. Midwest braced for a blast of Arctic air this weekend that could bring some of the coldest temperatures in two decades before advancing to the Northeast, where residents are still digging out from a deadly snowstorm.

Starting Sunday, the deep freeze will be felt in the northern U.S. plains, including North and South Dakota, and through the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said.

"The last really big Arctic outbreak was 1994," said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "Outbreaks like this don't occur every day."

In northeastern Canada, about 110,000 customers were without power due to a transformer fire on Saturday linked to heavy snow, government officials and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said.

The push of Arctic air could bring record low temperatures from Montana to Michigan, before moving the Northeast, where it will arrive by early Tuesday, forecasters said.

Temperatures in Chicago could drop to about minus 20 (minus 29 Celsius). Pittsburgh could see temperatures about 11 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 24 Celsius) by early Tuesday.

Temperatures were forecast to fall to 30 below in parts of the north central United States early Sunday morning, and in Grand Forks, North Dakota, wind chills were expected to exceed 50 below. A high of 19 below is forecast for Sunday.

"You grin and bear it and bundle up," said Rachel Osowski, a clerk at Hugo's Supermarket in Grand Forks. "You have to survive and function, you can't let the weather stop you."

In such conditions, frostbite can set in on exposed skin within five minutes, forecasters warned.

Read More Here

.....

• Bloomberg Home

Eastern U.S. to Be Locked in Cold Until Start of February

By Brian K. Sullivan Jan 24, 2014 8:44 AM CT
Colder temperatures will grip the most of the eastern U.S. and Canada through the start of February, according to forecasters.
The region is expected to have readings about 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) below normal through Feb. 2, said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Colder weather is forecast across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley from today through Jan. 28, said Rogers and MDA Weather Services of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Below-normal temperatures in the high population areas of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest boost energy demand as more people turn up their thermostats to heat homes and businesses. Natural gas is heading for its biggest weekly gain since September 2012 as frigid weather persists.

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Storms sweep across Midwest, kill 6 in Illinois

King5.com

by DAVID MERCER and DON BABWIN / Associated Press

Posted on November 18, 2013 at 6:04 AM

Updated today at 5:27 PM

See all 18 photos »

WASHINGTON, Ill.  -- As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse, Curt Zehr's wife and adult son didn't have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement.



Uninjured, the pair looked out moments later to find the house gone and the sun out "right on top" of them, Zehr said. Their home, on the outskirts of Washington, Ill., was swept up and scattered over hundreds of yards by one of the dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees.

Credit: Getty Images

Residents of Elgin Avenue sort through debris after a tornado struck on November 17, 2013 in Washington, Illinois. Several tornadoes touched down across the Midwest today with at least three people reported dead in Illinois.

"They saw (the tornado) right there and got in the basement," said a stunned Zehr, pointing to the farm field near the rubble that had been his home.

HOME VIDEO OF ILLINOIS TORNADO

Early Monday, Washington Mayor Gary Manier estimated that from 250 to 500 homes were either damaged or destroyed in the storm and that it wasn't clear when residents would be allowed to return.

77411696

Credit: Getty Images

WASHINGTON, IL - NOVEMBER 17: Residents of Elgin Avenue salvage what remains after a tornado struck on November 17, 2013 in Washington, Illinois. Several tornadoes touched down across the Midwest today with at least three people reported dead in Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

"Everybody's without power, but some people are without everything," Manier told reporters in the parking lot of a destroyed auto parts store and near a row of flattened homes.

"How people survived is beyond me," he said.

The unusually powerful late-season wave of thunderstorms brought damaging winds and tornadoes to 12 states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western New York.

Bill Bunting, forecast operations chief of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the storms all belonged to the same system and would be "moving rapidly to the east and continue east overnight and into the morning."

Illinois was the hardest struck with at least six people killed and dozens more injured.

An 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed by a tornado that hit their farmhouse near the rural southern Illinois community of New Minden, coroner Mark Styninger said. A third person died in Washington, while three others perished in Massac County in the far southern part of the state, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She did not provide details.

Communications remained difficult and with many roads impassable it was not clear if the injury and death tolls would rise on Monday. Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn declared seven counties disaster areas.

77411732

Credit: Getty Images

WASHINGTON, IL - NOVEMBER 17: A home sits in ruin along Elgin Avenue after a tornado struck on November 17, 2013 in Washington, Illinois. Several tornadoes touched down across the Midwest today with at least three people reported dead in Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Washington, a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago, appeared to have suffered the most severe damage. The tornado cut a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of town to the other, State Trooper Dustin Pierce said.

Across farm fields a little more than a mile from where Zehr's home was swept up, several blocks of homes were destroyed.

"The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone.

The Illinois National Guard assisted with search and recovery operations in Washington. The White House issued a statement saying President Barack Obama had been briefed about the damage and was in touch with federal, state and local officials. Quinn and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence were scheduled to survey affected areas in their respective states Monday.

As law enforcement officers continued to search for victims and sized up the cleanup and rebuilding job ahead, they kept everyone but residents and emergency workers out. With power off and lines down in many areas, natural gas lines leaking and trees and other debris blocking many streets, an overnight curfew kept all but emergency vehicles off pitch-black roads. The only lights visible across most of Washington on Sunday night were red and blue flashes from police and fire truck lights.

Pierce said there were reports of looting around town.

About 75 friends and neighbors helped Zehr to salvage his family's belongings. He said he'd been at church when the tornado hit but that his wife, Sue, and son were at home.

A friend, Keith Noe, said the Zehr family still felt fortunate.

"They both walked out of the basement and that's what counts," Noe said.

Across Washington, an auto parts store with several people inside was reduced to a pile of bricks, metal and rebar; a battered car, its windshield impaled by a piece of lumber, was flung alongside it.

"The employees were climbing out of this," Pierce said, gesturing to the rubble behind him. None of them was seriously injured, he said.

At OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in nearby Peoria, spokeswoman Amy Paul said 37 storm victims had been treated, including eight with injuries ranging from broken bones to head injuries. Another hospital, Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, treated more than a dozen, but officials there said none of them were seriously injured. Brian Williamson, a state spokesman, said hospitals reported treating about 60 people in Washington, but said that figure could grow.

77407921

Credit: Getty Images

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 17: In this handout provided by NOAA, shows severe weather as it moves through the midwest area of the United States on Nomveber 17, 2013. A fast-moving storm system that produced at least one tornado in Illinois threatens 26 states and more than 100 million people with high winds and possible flash flooding. (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images)

About 90 minutes after the tornado destroyed homes in Washington, the stormy weather darkened downtown Chicago. As the rain and high winds slammed into the area, officials at Soldier Field evacuated the stands and ordered the Bears and Baltimore Ravens off the field. Fans were allowed back to their seats shortly after 2 p.m., and the game resumed after about a two-hour delay.

Earlier, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications had issued a warning to fans, urging them "to take extra precautions and ... appropriate measures to ensure their personal safety."

Just how many tornadoes hit was unclear. Although about 80 reports of tornadoes had come in as of Sunday night, the National Weather Service's Bunting said the actual number will likely be in the 30 to 40 range. He said that's because the same tornado often gets reported multiple times.

Weather service meteorologist Matt Friedlein said such weather is rare this late in the year, but that strong winds coupled with temperatures in the 60s and 70s spawned Sunday's storms.

Read More and Watch Video Here

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