At least 2 dead as bomb cyclone brings subzero conditions and warnings to millions

The body of a man believed to have been killed in yesterday's Idaho avalanche was recovered by rescuers this afternoon and identified, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The man, in a group of three skiers caught in the avalanche near Steven’s Peak yesterday afternoon, was identified today as Corey J. Zalewski, it said. The two others were located by deputies after a Garmin GPS device alerted authorities they were in trouble, the office said.

Those two survived and were recovering, it said. Deputies and members of the U.S. Air Force, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Silver Valley Search and Rescue, and the Silver Mountain Ski Patrol were part of the search.

Steven's Peak reaches 7,000 feet near Idaho's border with Montana. It's popular with hikers, skiers and climbers.

A 66-year-old man died in an avalanche in Tahoe, California, on Wednesday.

Two powerful winter storms are barreling across the country causing hundreds of flight cancellations, creating havoc on highways and burying parts of the Midwest under inches of snow. 

An 80-year-old man died this morning in Minnesota when his truck went through the ice on Mille Lacs Lake, the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office said.

A 911 caller said he saw an area on the lake where the truck had gone through the ice and found an adult male in the water nearby wearing a floatation device, officials said. The caller said he was able to recover the man and bring him to shore.

The man, who has been identified as Richard Francis Gadbois of Isle, Minn., was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Mille Lacs Lake is about 100 miles north of Minneapolis.

The day after an avalanche claimed the life of a skier at Palisades Tahoe in Olympic Valley, Calif., a second avalanche rocked the resort.

A second avalanche hit the Wolverine Bowl section of Alpine Meadows about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, resort spokesperson Patrick Lacey said.

No guests or employees were impacted or injured, but the resort conducted searches of the mountain to be sure, Lacey said. Once the area was cleared, the lift was reopened for the day.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued a state of emergency in anticipation of the severe weather expected to hit the state over the weekend and into next week.

The Southern state is expecting a "wintry mix" in some areas and wind chills in the teens to near freezing for central and northern Louisiana, according to a statement from Landry's office.

“We are encouraging everyone to prepare for these conditions and heed the advice of your local officials,” Landry said. “Road crews are on standby in an attempt to keep our roads open.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Feels-like temperatures in the area aren’t expected to climb above zero until Wednesday at the earliest, and some of the fiercest weather is expected tomorrow — the day of the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.

The high for the day is expected to only be 5 degrees, and it’ll be colder than that during the night game.

The home team wants to keep fans as safe and comfortable as possible and announced some weather accommodations today.

• Fans will be allowed to bring in blankets, cardboard (to stand on) and portable chargers to power heated apparel.
• Warming stations will be set up both inside and outside the stadium.
• Designated drivers will be given hot coffee or hot chocolate to help stave off the bone-chilling weather.

The most flight cancelations in the world were seen today out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

More than 420 (41%) flights originating at the airport were canceled and 280 (27%) were delayed, according to the site. Into O’Hare, 394 (38%) flights were canceled and 224 (21%) were delayed.

Nearby Elgin, Ill., was covered in more than 8 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service, and that snow plus strong winds and freezing temperatures will continue throughout the weekend.

Because of the storms, O'Hare at 3 p.m. local time said it had proactively canceled 850 flights and delays were averaging 25 minutes.

A 69-year-old man was found unresponsive after clearing his driveway with a snow blower in Franklin, Wisc., near Milwaukee and was pronounced dead on scene shortly thereafter.

The Milwaukee Medical Examiner's office said it will investigate the incident as a weather-related death but will not conduct an autopsy.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop bussing migrants to Illinois during the extreme cold snap.

Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants from their arrival point in Texas to major U.S. cities, including Chicago, for months. But as storms dump feet of snow and bring negative windchills to the Midwest, Prizker is asking Abbott to pause.

"You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow — to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here," Pritzker wrote in a letter to Abbott.

He continued: "Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals. Hundreds of children’s and families’ health and survival are at risk due to your actions."

Pritzker acknowledged that there should be a bipartisan congressional agreement on a way forward in the current migrant crisis.

"But right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival," Pritzker said in the letter. "I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now."

Nearly 200,000 people throughout the Midwest, South and Eastern U.S. are without power as dangerous storms and heavy winds wreak havoc across the nation, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.

A second potent winter storm that was brewing off the North American coast is expected to aim at Oregon and Northern California over the weekend with a firehose of rain and snow.

The storm will be fueled by an atmospheric river, a stream of precipitation in the sky usually drawn from warmer Pacific waters, and is likely to bring heavy snow to the Cascade Mountains that run from Oregon to Canada, federal forecasters said.

"A plume of moisture will stream into parts of the Pacific Northwest and California, creating heavy rain," the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast discussion.

The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, which gives atmospheric rivers a hurricanelike scale of weak (1) to most exceptional (5), says this one will range from 1 to 3 on its AR scale, with 10 inches of rain possible amid the weekend storm's most potent moments.

The system, expected to bring snow and freezing rain to Portland tonight, will take advantage of the Arctic invasion by continuing to produce snow as it moves east, forecasters said.

"This system will be interacting with a bitterly cold continental Arctic airmass that is spilling southward out of Canada and may bring lowland snowfall to parts of the Pacific Northwest and perhaps historic blizzard conditions across the upper Midwest in the coming days," said a forecast discussion on UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain's Weather West website.

Hot competition and frigid temperatures are forecast for the NFL playoff games this weekend, as severe winter storms roll through the U.S. 

Weather will be extreme at game time at some sites. Here’s what fans can expect at kickoff.

• Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans — Saturday 3:30 p.m. CST in Houston's NRG Stadium (retractable roof): 62 F
• Miami Dolphins at Kansas City Chiefs — Saturday 7 p.m. CST in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium (outdoors): -4 F (-28 F wind chill)
• Pittsburgh Steelers at Buffalo Bills — Sunday 1 p.m. EST in Orchard Park, N's Highmark Stadium (outdoor): 22 F (-7 F wind chill) with heavy and blowing snow 
• Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys — Sunday 3:30 p.m. CST in Arlington's AT&T Stadium (retractable roof): 25 F
• Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions — Sunday 8 p.m. EST in Detroit's Ford Field (indoors): 9 F 

Heavy snow has started in the Midwest, with some areas already seeing more than a foot.

• Finland, Minn., had 17 inches as of this afternoon.
• In Fairfield, Iowa, there is 11.5 inches of snow on the ground.
• Warner, Ill., has recorded 11 inches.
• Quad Cities, Ill., is dealing with 10.4 inches.

These totals could grow as heavy snow is set to continue in the Great Lakes region tonight with snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour. The area will also face more than 40-mph wind gusts to continue the blizzardlike conditions.

Snowfall totals from the weekend are set to be the highest in parts of northern Wisconsin and Michigan, where a whopping 12 to 18 inches — or more — is possible.

At Big Mountain summit in northwest Montana this morning, the wind chill was negative 68 degrees, according to the National Weather Service out of Missoula.

The bad weather continues throughout the Northwest region of the state.

Video posted to social media shows heavy snow and high wind in Kalispell, as the conditions continue to worsen.

Meteorologists are labeling the sprawling storm moving across the central United States a “bomb cyclone,” but what does that term really mean?

A bomb cyclone is essentially a storm that rapidly intensifies and undergoes a significant drop in air pressure. Specifically, a storm must drop at least 24 millibars over a 24-hour period to qualify as a bomb cyclone, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That definition can vary, however, depending on latitude.

Millibars are units of measurement for atmospheric pressure inside a storm and are used to indicate a storm’s intensity.

A storm can undergo "bombogenesis" when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, fueling the rapid intensification.

As the label suggests, bomb cyclones unleash an array of dangerous conditions, including blizzards, high winds and heavy snow.

Severe winter weather and a cold front brought wind chills of 52 below zero in Great Falls, Montana, and 29 below in Bismark, North Dakota, today, as the frigid air spears south toward Texas.

Fifty-four million people are under winter alerts with blizzard warnings in the Quad Cities through much of Iowa and into portions of South Dakota, as well southern portions of Idaho.  

Six inches of snow have already fallen in the Des Moines area; Chicago has seen two to four inches; and snowfall totals could reach around a foot in Milwaukee and upward, especially near lakefront areas.

Meanwhile, the East Coast faces flooding threats with 35 million under flood watches and warnings. 

Winter weather is forecast to hit the breadth of the U.S., from Washington state to Maine. Track the potential disruptive impact of the weather in the coming 24 hours with this map, which updates automatically every two hours.

The Windy City, no stranger to bitter winters, will be hit with the coldest weather of the season starting this weekend, officials said today.

Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication Executive Director Jose Tirado said the cold weather will hit tomorrow afternoon and will continue into next week. The cold front expected early Sunday into Wednesday will see below-zero temperatures and the possibility of -20 wind chills each morning from Sunday through Wednesday, he said.

A winter storm warning is currently in effect through 5 p.m. local time and a blizzard warning has been issued for this evening until noon tomorrow, with heavy snow and mixed precipitation forecast, the National Weather Service said. Warming centers will be open across the city and motorists are warned to drive with caution. 

Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt told NBC Chicago, “We have not seen cold weather like this since 2019.” 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she has activated the National Guard ahead of an imminent winter storm that will hit the state, and that she will declare a state of emergency for western New York. 

Areas of significant focus are Buffalo and Watertown where lake-effect snow and strong winds will create blizzardlike conditions and low visibility off Lake Erie and Ontario tomorrow into Sunday. She said that 20 inches of snowfall is forecast for that region.

Hochul announced a travel ban on empty tractor trailers and tandem trucks from Rochester area to the Pennsylvania state line starting tomorrow at 9 a.m., citing how past storms have seen such trucks overturn, creating catastrophes on roads.

Equipment is already being deployed and 100 National Guard members will arrive in western New York tomorrow morning. Generators have been put in place across the state ahead of the storm and warming centers will also be opened. 

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republicans here were expecting a flurry of political activity in the closing days before Monday’s caucuses. Instead, they got a “life-threatening” blizzard that, along with bone-chilling temperatures, imperils voter turnout.

“20 below [zero] is cold,” said Will Rogers, a former chairman of the Polk County GOP who plans to caucus for Haley. “It will keep people home on caucus night.”

He said he believes stay-inside temperatures will help Trump, who has a highly committed voter base and has led by dozens of points in every major recent poll of the state.

Read more here.

Gov. Greg Abbott warned of “ultracold temperatures” forecast to sweep across Texas from tomorrow through Wednesday, but said the power grid will stay on throughout the freeze. 

Abbott’s assurance comes after Texas suffered a massive power crisis during extreme winter storms in February 2021 that saw millions of homes lose power and contributed to the deaths of 246 people.

He said that ERCOT’s grid and power sources were winterized, adding, "They have never been as prepared for a winter event as they are today, including having a secondary source of fuel available."

He warned that there are two time periods that officials predict may be "tight" for power: Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. Abbott urged people to prepare to stay home, avoid driving especially if precipitation comes down and creates icy roads, and said warming centers will be opened across the state.

From blizzard warnings to tornado watches to widespread storm advisories, it's shaping up to be a wild weather day across the entire country.

States in the Midwest and the Great Lakes region are bracing for intense blizzard conditions, while a blast of Arctic air is sending temperatures plummeting in the Northwest and through parts of the Plains.

High wind warnings are in effect for much of the eastern half of the country, and the weather service said tornadoes are possible in Mississippi and Tennessee as severe thunderstorms move through the Southeast.

“A VERY active weather pattern, and EVERY state in the US has an active NWS Watch, Warning, or Advisory,” it said on X.

Chicago O'Hare International Airport is delaying all flights by at least two hours because of the freezing conditions, the Federal Aviation Administration said in an update early today.

The airport initiated a ground delay program, which will mean knock-on delays to flights will last into the evening and at least until 9 p.m. ET.

Earlier, the airport ordered a ground stop and said that no flights would land or take off from the airport until at least 7.15 a.m.

The news comes amid widespread travel disruptions with more than 2,000 flight cancellations today so far and more than 10,000 delays, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.

Chicago could be about to break an astonishing weather record, with 10.7 inches of snow having fallen there already this season. If this current storm brings 9.6 inches or more, the city will have already received more than the 20.2 inches it got last winter.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, 4.4 inches of snow has fallen today already at the weather service's center in Johnston, north of Des Moines.

The coldest temperature today was recorded at 7 a.m. ET near Salt Lake, Montana, where thermometers dropped to a frigid minus 39, according a preliminary reading from the weather service.

There is still some ways to go before reaching the record low temperature for Montana of minus 70, however.

The day's warmest temperature so far was a summery 88 degrees recorded at Faith Ranch Airport in Texas, southwest of San Antonio.

People across the country are bracing for more winter weather, with 35 million under a severe weather risk. As people in the West recover from deadly avalanches, more twisters and hail will hammer the South, while blizzards blanket the Midwest. NBC’s Maggie Vespa reports and the "TODAY" show’s Al Roker tracks the latest forecast.

DALLAS — A strong cold front is expected to knock wind chills in the Dallas-Fort Worth area down into the teens and 20s this morning, according to the weather service.

Highs will end up in the 40s and 50s today, but it will be windy ahead of the below-freezing temps forecast for later this weekend.

Overnight Sunday into Monday, temperatures are expected in the low teens around Dallas, and in the single digits in other parts of north Texas, including Greenville and Cisco, according to the weather service.

Though it's still days out, there's a chance Dallas could see a wintry mix or some snow Sunday into Monday, which could be enough to make roads iffy.

Eyes will also be on the state's power grid as it faces its first big test of the year. ERCOT, which operates 90% of the grid, said yesterday that there is "not a current expectation of an energy emergency."

Early next week, Texas and the interior Southwest could see below-zero wind chills, according to the weather service.

Jason Parker was snowboarding at Palisades Tahoe on Wednesday when an avalanche erupted on the mountain, burying him underneath several feet of snow and killing one man.

It was the first day the KT-22 chairlift was open at the ski resort in Olympic Valley, California, and Parker and his fiancée both had a day off, so, despite the low visibility and strong winds, they decided to hit the slopes.

“It was open, and we took advantage of it,” Parker, who lives just outside downtown Reno, told NBC News.

Read the full story here.

One man is missing and presumed dead after an avalanche in Idaho yesterday, while two others were rescued and are recovering, authorities confirmed early today.

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an avalanche near Steven’s Peak, via a GPS alert from a Garmin digital device, at 2.53 p.m. yesterday.

Using the GPS device, deputies were able to establish contact with and locate two of the missing men, who are now receiving medical care.

Despite assistance from the U.S. Air Force, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Silver Valley Search and Rescue, and the Silver Mountain Ski Patrol, the search party could not find the third man.

NBC News meteorologist Angie Lassman tells "Early Today" what the weather has in store, where rain will lash the East and snow will blanket the Midwest.

Oregon is bracing for a cold snap with heavy snow forecast in the Cascades today, according to the weather service.

Tomorrow, snow will linger in the mountains and the area in addition to the Columbia River Gorge and the Portland and Vancouver areas are expected to be hit with snow and gusty winds.

There's also the potential for blizzard conditions in the gorge, the weather service said.

Iowa’s statewide law enforcement agency warned residents that the winter weather hitting the Hawkeye State can be deadly.

“In the interest of YOUR safety AND those working the roads, we STRONGLY advise everyone to refrain from ANY non-essential travel,” the Iowa State Highway Patrol said on X yesterday, calling it a “life-threatening winter weather alert.”

As much as 11 inches of snow may have fallen by 10 a.m. today, and then through tomorrow morning there will be blizzard conditions, it said. Tomorrow through Tuesday will have life-threatening cold with wind chills of as low as minus 45 degrees.

Just after midnight into this morning, blizzard warnings covered most of Iowa, where the Iowa caucuses are set to start Monday.

More than 6 inches of snow is forecast to fall in the Milwaukee area today through tomorrow, the weather service said. Chicago is expected to get the coldest temperatures of the season starting Sunday, with wind chills of minus 30 at times, the weather service there said.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Temperatures for the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses Monday are set to be the coldest in the contest’s modern history, with a forecast high temperature of around zero degrees in Des Moines, according to the weather service.

But Republican presidential candidates aren’t worried, uniformly saying they think their supporters are uniquely motivated to come out and vote the night of Jan. 15. And state party leaders also don’t think the frigid temperatures will affect the turnout.

Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann said this week that barring severe weather, he doesn’t think the cold temperatures alone will drive caucusgoers away in large numbers. 

Read the full story here.

The National Weather Service office in Buffalo has warned of a triple threat of wind, rain and snow.

Temperatures will be a chilly 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit, far higher than in other parts of the country further west, but a high winds watch starts across the state from today.

"Taking it one day at a time, tomorrow will be fair, a good day to prepare outside before the winds ramp up tomorrow night, with these winds remaining very strong through Saturday," the weather service said.

A number of U.S. cities could set new daily cold records as temperatures across the country plummet into the weekend and early next week.

More than 60 cities might experience their coldest daily temperatures Monday and Tuesday morning, including the Texas cities of Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Memphis, Tennessee.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The snow piles from early in the week haven’t had a chance to melt yet, but neighbors better get used to ‘em.

Forecasters are calling for more snow today, but that’s only part of the brutal weather that awaits. Temps aren’t expected to climb above freezing for at least five days.

It isn’t just freezing temps we’re talking about; it’s record-setting, subzero lows that send a chill up your spine just from looking at the forecast. It’s the kind of extreme weather that calls for a sweater — and a coat — for little dogs that have to go outside.

But the weather isn’t the only thing that folks here are talking about: The Chiefs and their playoff hopes come up plenty, too. Never mind that it isn’t Patrick Mahomes or Chris Jones they’re talking about, it’s the frigid temps and what that means for barbecue tailgates outside Arrowhead.

The game kicks off at 7 p.m. tomorrow local time against the Miami Dolphins in minus 6 conditions (and that’s before you factor in the wind, then it will feel like minus 20). It could be the coldest home playoff game in the Chiefs’ history.

In temps that extreme, it's not clear that the team from the Heartland has a weather advantage over the Dolphins.

The intense system that could bring severe storms, blizzard conditions and rain to parts of the U.S. is expected to reach the official criteria of a bomb cyclone.

So what is a bomb cyclone?

Read the full story here.

An intense winter storm that hit the western United States last night is set to continue spreading into the Plains and the Midwest today, where it will strengthen considerably.

The storm will usher in the coldest air of the season to the northern Rockies, the Plains and the Midwest.

Blizzard conditions are possible today in cities including St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Des Moines, Iowa; and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In the South, a severe weather outbreak is possible from Mississippi to North Carolina with chances of strong tornadoes and wind gusts more than 75 mph.

By late tonight, heavy rain and wind will arrive in the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.