Winter storm weakens but travel still hazardous in places
CHICAGO — The fury of the winter storm that swept into the northern Great Plains on Christmas Day was weakening Monday evening, but blowing and drifting snow continued to hamper travel in many areas.
The combination of freezing rain, snow and high winds that forced vast stretches of highways in the Dakotas to be shut down Sunday continued into Monday, and authorities issued no-travel warnings for much of North Dakota.
Meanwhile, in parts of the South, unseasonably warm temperatures were raising the risk of tornadoes and damaging thunderstorms. About 3 million people in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee could see damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes Monday, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said, but no major outbreak was expected.
The National Weather Service’s blizzard warning for western and central North Dakota expired Monday afternoon, but the agency warned snow drifts still blocked some roads.