The weather in the Dakotas is not getting better because another blizzard is heading into the region on Monday and Tuesday. The Dakotas do not need more wind and precipitation. One resident in Fargo, North Dakota said, “this weather took us by surprise, the river behind my house is normally 8’ to 12’ high and flood stage is 18’. The river is as 41’ right now.
Storms spread misery Saturday from the Great Plains to the Gulf Coast, dumping spring snow that cut power to thousands of Kansas’s utility customers and spawning tornado warnings and heavy rain across the South.
Two deaths were reported in Kansas as a spring blizzard buried parts of the state in ice, slush and up to two feet of snow. The system also prompted a disaster declaration in Kansas.
The storm also dumped as much as two feet of snow on parts of Oklahoma. It was blamed for two deadly accidents in central Oklahoma and dozens of other collisions in northwest Oklahoma. The National Weather Service warned eastern Iowa about a narrow band of snow that will be particularly nasty, with forecast accumulation of 4 to 6 inches. In Iowa City snow began piling up at in the afternoon on Saturday.
Mixed in with the heavy snow could be thunder and lightning, a phenomenon called thunder snow, which typically produces heavy snow over a brief period.
Bands of spring storms also lashed the Southeast with thunderstorms, baseball-sized hail, flash floods and tornado watches and warnings. The region was still reeling from twisters over the past two days. On Thursday, nearly 30 people were hurt when a tornado destroyed dozens of homes and businesses across south-central Mississippi. On Friday, tornadoes struck Louisiana, Alabama and North Carolina, damaging homes and toppling trees.
Strong winds Saturday damaged roofs and windows and sent debris flying in Murfreesboro, Tenn., the state emergency management agency said. Three people were injured and treated at the scene.
Severe thunderstorms tore off roofs and downed trees and power lines in Corydon in western Kentucky.
About 100 roads in southern Mississippi were impassable at the height of the bad weather because of flooding, including the main route into Biloxi. Some residents had to be rescued from stalled cars in flood waters. More than 200 homes in the Biloxi area sustained flood damage and two roads sustained major pavement washouts.
One resident said, "We have springtime storms but this is a very unusual springtime storm."
People were evacuated from about a dozen homes in Geneva County in southeast Alabama because of flooding. Up to 17 inches of rain had fallen over three days in isolated areas in Alabama and Mississippi.
In Missouri, Kansas City International Airport was closed for more than two hours Saturday because of a mix of freezing rain and snow. Officials said they briefly closed the airport to departing and arriving flights because maintenance crews couldn't keep up with waves of freezing rain and snow and conditions were too slick for aircraft to operate safely.
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