Travelers at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday on Sunday were finding hundreds of flights delayed and canceled in Chicago following a winter storm in the Great Lakes region, while a wintry mix of rain and snow developed in the Northeast.
In Wisconsin, utility crews worked to restore power to thousands of people, while the airport in Des Moines, Iowa, reopened on the critical travel day after a Delta Connection flight landing from Detroit slid off an icy runway. No injuries were reported, and passengers were transported to the terminal by bus.
Hundreds of churches in western Michigan told worshippers to stay home or watch services online. Up to 12 inches of snow had fallen since Saturday in areas close to Lake Michigan.
On Saturday, 8.4 inches of snow fell at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, setting a record for the highest single calendar day snowfall in November at the airport, according to the National Weather Service. That broke the previous record of 8 inches on Nov. 6, 1951.
Over 250 flights into and out of O'Hare had been canceled by early afternoon, while over 1,000 had been delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday afternoon that departures to O’Hare were delayed on average by nearly an hour due to snow or ice, and that departures from the airport were delayed an average of 15 minutes, and that was increasing due to the weather.
Planes were being de-iced at several airports across the country on Sunday, including at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, according to the FAA.
On Sunday afternoon there were about 340 flights into and out of Detroit Metro Airport that were delayed and about two dozen canceled.
In Wisconsin, We Energies reported more than 6,000 power outages, with more than half in Milwaukee and South Milwaukee. Mark Paladino said on Facebook that he was shoveling snow Sunday when his apartment complex lost power in Fredonia. Others said power lines were sagging under heavy, wet snow.
Elsewhere in Iowa, gusty winds Sunday were blowing snow back onto roads, extending hazardous travel conditions, the National Weather Service said.
“We did have areas of Iowa and Illinois that saw over one foot of snow,” including 15 inches in Fort Dodge, Iowa, said meteorologist Andrew Orrison.
He said snow in the Great Lakes region was tapering off, but a new storm was heading to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with up to a foot of snow by Tuesday.
“It's going to be the first snowfall of the season for many of these areas, and it's going to be rather significant," Orrison said. “The good news is that it does not look like the major cities at this point are going to be looking at any significant snowfall.”
