A Reminder of What Midwest Winters Are About

“It’s a really big mess out there,” said David Beachler, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service. “And it’s coming at a really inopportune time.”

At least seven traffic deaths across four states were reported in the blizzard, the first significant winter storm of the season for much of the Midwest. As the storm moved from the Plains into the Great Lakes by Thursday, more than a foot of wet, heavy snow fell in portions of Iowa and Wisconsin.

But the storm was notable less for how much snow it left behind than for how it left it. In some places, sudden bursts of snow fell at a rapid rate only to have winds, whistling and gusting at speeds as high as 55 miles per hour, sending sheets of it flying sideways.

“Because of the wind, combined with steady and heavy snowfall, what you have is not just a pain to plow through,” said Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. “You really have those blizzard-type whiteout conditions, and that’s where people can get very quickly in a position where they get stranded.”

Mr. Walker declared a state of emergency, called in more than 100 members of the National Guard in heavy vehicles and snowmobiles, and closed state facilities in 22 counties.

In some places, major roads were closed and smaller ones were cluttered with motorists who had spun out, been blown off the road or had pulled over to wait out the storm. In Iowa, which issued a statewide “no travel” recommendation, drifting snow left some drivers unable to see even a single car length in front of them. About 80 Iowa National Guard members in Humvees helped rescue stranded motorists, including a family of five on Wednesday.

“I’ve lost count,” Annette Dunn, the winter operations administrator for the Iowa Department of Transportation, said of the number of wrecks across that state. “Many times, we’re just opening the road back up and we’ll get another accident.” In the largest single accident in Iowa, 25 cars were involved in a chain-reaction crash along Interstate 35 that left two people dead.

As holiday travelers were setting out for extended breaks, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed here at O’Hare International Airport, as well as at smaller airports around the region. The problems appeared likely to create a backlog of travelers just as the real rush was soon to begin; about 266,000 passengers were expected to pass through Chicago’s airports on Friday, which was projected to be the holiday period’s busiest travel day.

School was canceled Thursday in parts of states including Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, where the storm arrived overnight on Wednesday. Multiple accidents, including overturned semitrailer trucks, led to the closing of nearly 400 miles of Interstate 80 from Lincoln, Neb., almost to the Wyoming border.

“Everything here was white,” said Mary Jo Oie, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Roads. “You can’t see.”

Heavy snow and downed trees weighed on power lines across the Midwest, leaving some without power — and with the knowledge that temperatures, which had been relatively warm this season, were expected to continue sinking. Around Omaha, about 41,000 homes were without power on Thursday morning, and repair crews were slowed by the dismal conditions.

The storm was unlikely to have much effect on the drought that has troubled the Midwest for months. “Yes, the moisture is welcome, but it’s just not going to amount to a tremendous amount of moisture in the end,” said Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center.

In parts of the region, the blizzard ended what had been record stretches with no measurable snowfall. Last year’s entire winter was so remarkably mild and relatively snowless that numerous Midwestern towns used only a small fraction of their street salt supply.

In Chicago, a place that is accustomed to getting — and stoically coping with — more than its fair share of snow, on Thursday it had been 290 days since the last snow, the longest period on record. Some 200 city snowplows waited at the ready on Thursday afternoon, even before the falling temperatures were forecast to turn rain into snow.

Some here seemed unconcerned, even excited at the prospect.

“We’re supposed to have snow,” said Gina Walker, 42, who was visiting an outdoor holiday market downtown and said her two young sons had long been asking when snow would come. “We’re built for it.”

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