(CNN) — A powerful, rapidly intensifying winter storm sweeping across the central and eastern US is bringing a messy mix of blizzard conditions, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and a sharp reality check to winter-like cold, snarling travel during one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season.
More than 30 million people are under winter weather alerts from the Midwest into the Northeast. In the Upper Midwest, blizzard warnings cover parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph are whipping heavy snow into whiteout conditions.
Long stretches of Interstate 35 – a major highway stretching from Texas to Minnesota – have been closed or deemed unsafe to travel, and more than 125,000 customers were without power early Monday, more than half of them in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.US.
Air travel has also taken a hit with thousands of flights delayed or canceled Sunday, including disruptions at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where thunderstorms prompted a temporary ground stop.
Parts of Michigan have received close to a foot of snow. Marquette, Michigan shattered its previous daily snowfall record of 8.5 inches, picking up 11.5 inches and counting as of late Sunday night.
Farther south and east, the storm’s cold front sparked a line of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and a few tornadoes reported in parts of Illinois.
The storms developed along the sharp boundary separating unseasonably warm air from a frigid Arctic air mass moving in behind it. In Springfield, Illinois, temperatures dropped from the 70s into the 40s in just a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri, the high Sunday afternoon was 77 degrees. As the front passed through the city, the National Weather Service reported a 10 degree temperature drop in about 10 minutes. Eight hours later, St. Louis was experiencing snow and temperatures in the low 20s.
The worst winter weather impacts across the Midwest continue overnight Sunday with dangerous travel lingering into early Monday. Officials urged people to avoid unnecessary travel, especially in areas under blizzard warnings where visibility may remain near zero at times.
As the system pushes east Monday into Tuesday, the wintry side will shift north and east while much of the Ohio Valley and I-95 corridor will receive mainly rain.
Parts of New England could deal with freezing rain late Sunday into Monday, raising the risk for icy roads and power outages. The National Weather Service warns that ice could build up at a rate of .06 inches per hour.
Several spots in Michigan and northern New York have already reported ice accumulations of up to a half-inch.
Behind the storm, a dramatic temperature swing arrives quickly. Much of the central and southern US will go from 20 to 30 degrees above average this weekend to 10 to 15 degrees below average by Monday and Tuesday, marking a return to colder, more seasonable conditions after the recent stretch of springlike warmth.
Dangerous wind chills, as low as minus 30 degrees, across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota early Monday will make frostbite a real threat.
The storm adds to an already challenging travel period, with more than 100 million people expected to drive for end-of-year trips. While conditions improve later in the week, the reset to colder air will keep winter hazards in play as the holiday travel rush continues.
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