Cold Chills Plains, Brings Snow to Dakotas, Lake Superior Area

Arctic air moved into several states early Thursday, bringing snow to the Dakotas and the Lake Superior area of Michigan and Wisconsin and sweeping the Plains with temperature readings dipping to near zero.

An arctic high-pressure system brought scattered snow flurries over North and South Dakota and Minnesota, where temperatures dropped into the 20s, forecasters said. Bismarck, N.D., and North Platte, Neb., reported readings of 19 degrees.

The low for the nation was 4 degrees at Grand Forks, N.D., and Yellowstone Park, Wyo.

The Hurley, Wis., area on the south shore of Lake Superior reported more than 30 inches of snow by daybreak, and it was still falling, the Iron County Sheriff’s Department reported.

National Weather Service officials said that the area usually gets large amounts of snow because it is high country in the Lake Superior snow belt, but they acknowledged that this was early in the season for such a heavy snow..

In Michigan, the storm brought 27 to 36 inches of snow to Ironwood, 12 to 18 inches at Wakefield and a foot of snow at Ontonagon, the weather service said. Temperatures ranged in the low 20s.

Five inches of snow was on the ground by daybreak in Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette, Mich.

Freezing temperatures chilled Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, with readings in the 30s and 40s from Illinois eastward.

Temperatures reached into the 30s and 40s over much of the East early Thursday, while cloudy skies prevailed from Maryland to eastern West Virginia and across the Northeast. Forecasters said northern New England could get its first snowfall of the season by today.

Showers and thunderstorms drenched southeastern Texas and stretched into Louisiana and Mississippi, but they later tapered off and gave way to a cold front across the region and into southern Arkansas, weather officials said.