US winter storm to bring blizzard, tornadoes and floods - BBC

A coast-to-coast tempest is bringing dense snowfall, almighty winds, and different utmost upwind crossed the US and parts of Canada.

Some occidental states, including Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, are expecting up to 2ft (60cm) of snow.

Other states successful the south, meanwhile, are facing imaginable tornadoes and flash flooding.

The tempest could impact millions of residents successful astir each authorities successful the contiguous US, experts said.

"It's a reasonably vigorous tempest system," said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. "This 1 is simply a small larger than your mean wintertime storm."

"Folks should enactment location during the time [on Tuesday] if they unrecorded up north," helium added.

The worst of the upwind began connected Monday nighttime and is expected to proceed into Tuesday and Wednesday, hitting the cardinal and bluish High Plains, a portion of the US that includes eastbound Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska, Mr Otto said.

These states are expected to spot gusty winds implicit 40mph (64km/h) and dense snowfall.

Blizzard warnings from the National Weather Service are besides successful effect for each of those states, arsenic good arsenic Colorado. Those are triggered by winds of astatine slightest 35mph accompanied by dense snowfall.

Heavy snowfall combined with beardown upwind gusts volition make debased visibility and "treacherous" question conditions, Mr Otto said.

It is expected that immoderate parts of the portion could get 1 to 2 inches of snowfall per hour.

The tempest is besides expected to spill into Canada, with dense snowfall and precocious winds hitting the country's confederate Prairie region, including the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, connected Tuesday and Wednesday.

Winter tempest alerts are successful effect for implicit 15 cardinal radical surviving successful much than a twelve US states.

Upper midwestern states are besides expected to get a 4th to fractional an inch of freezing rainfall connected Tuesday. Meanwhile, the little Mississippi Valley faces the anticipation of terrible thunderstorms, hail, flash floods, according to the National Weather Service.

Southern states are besides facing a hazard of tornadoes, with bluish Texas and parts of Oklahoma some nether tornado watches connected Tuesday morning.

The utmost upwind is expected to linger done overmuch of this week, experts said, arsenic it pushes eastward into the cardinal Plains by Thursday.

The tempest strategy began to deed the US past Friday, bringing almighty winds to California.

The Sierra Nevada upland scope successful bluish California reported 5ft of snowfall successful immoderate areas implicit the weekend, forcing immoderate highways to adjacent and triggering avalanche warnings successful the country done Monday night.