DENVER, Nov. 11 (UPI) — The first blast of winter weather has turned some parts of the Rocky Mountains white with snow and pushed strong wind gusts to the Midwest.
Blizzard-like conditions hit Colorado early Wednesday, forecasters said, less than 24 hours after Denver notched a high temperature of 70 degrees.
“It’s a huge, typical November storm,” Kevin Roth, lead forecaster for The Weather Channel, told NBC News. “Winter is on the way, that’s for sure.”
The National Weather Service forecast similar conditions for parts of the Midwest — like Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska, where wind gusts were expected to accompany heavy snowfall. Other regions are getting thunderstorms and rain.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency issued an alert Wednesday and advised residents to be aware of changing weather conditions.
St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh are also expected to see worsening conditions, including possible tornadoes.
Officials said tens of millions of residents are in the storm’s anticipated path — many of whom could be left without electricity after the weather passes.
“The large-scale weather system is behaving pretty much as we would have expected it,” Rich Thompson, lead forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma, said.
The storms might also impact air travel in to and from the Midwest, officials said.
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