Northern Plains

An early spring blizzard barreled into the northern plains Sunday with blinding snow, threatening young livestock and dropping temperatures that had reached as high as the 80s. The blizzard moved across the Canadian border into Montana Sunday morning, and blizzard alerts in the state warned of strong winds and near-zero visibilities, said National Weather Service forecaster Lyle Alexander. Winds gusted to 67 m.p.h. just north of the Canadian border, and a 62-m.p.h.

A wintry blast of punishing wind and nearly 4 feet of snow stranded unknown numbers of motorists and knocked out power to thousands. A long stretch of Interstate 90 was closed in South Dakota, as was Interstate 80 in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Parts of North Dakota received about 9 inches of snow.

One of the biggest snowstorms to hit the northern Plains this winter dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of South Dakota and Minnesota, stranding travelers and closing hundreds of schools. Freezing rain knocked out power to homes across northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, and hundreds of traffic accidents were reported, including two deaths when a taxi slid into a tractor-trailer near Minneapolis.

An innovative spacecraft named Phoenix that resurrects pieces of NASA's failed 1999 Polar Lander and its canceled 2001 Mars Surveyor Lander has won the competition to explore the Red Planet in 2008, NASA announced Monday. The $325-million Phoenix lander is scheduled to be launched in 2007 and should arrive on the icy northern plains of Mars in May 2008.

Temperatures plunged well below zero and combined with blowing snow, sending residents across the Rockies and northern Plains scrambling for wool sweaters and parkas. The mercury in thermometers in Casper, Wyo., hit 19 degrees below zero, shattering the town's record for the date of zero degrees, set in 1995. Parts of North Dakota also stayed in the single digits, and icy temperatures dipped as far south as Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa.

A winterlike storm stretched from the northern Rockies across the northern Plains on Thursday, lashing the region with heavy snow and strong winds. The storm had dumped up to 10 inches of snow on the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming by the afternoon, weather officials said. Elsewhere, four inches of snow fell at Grand Forks, N.D., and at Thief River Falls and Bemidji in Minnesota. Walker, Minn., reported six inches of snow.

Thousands of volunteers piled sandbags Tuesday in a desperate effort to hold off rising rivers across the flood-ravaged northern Plains. Record-low April temperatures created dangerous ice jams on swollen waterways and froze flood waters around and inside homes, cars and anything else caught in the overflow. In Wahpeton, a city of 10,000 about 50 miles south of Fargo, residents scrambled to plug gaps in dikes that had been purposely breached to allow trapped flood waters to flow out.

An intense snowstorm Monday interrupted spring in the northern Plains. With snow more than a foot deep, record cold and winds gusting up to 90 m.p.h., North Dakota state workers got the day off, classes at scores of schools were canceled and travelers were stranded. Five people died when their plane crashed in blizzard-like conditions in Nebraska, and one traffic death was blamed on the weather. A motorist was missing in South Dakota. "We have a raging blizzard here.

Subzero cold and snow Thursday stretched from the northern Plains to the East Coast, closing schools and making driving hazardous. About three inches of snow stalled traffic in Washington, D.C., shutting schools and keeping buses off clogged side streets. "We've got 40 to 50 trucks out spreading abrasives on all city streets," district traffic engineer George Schoene said. "The major streets are down to wet pavement and slush, especially in the major flow directions.

Snowbound cross-country bus passengers whooped and hollered for joy Wednesday as westbound Interstate 94 began opening to traffic after a two-day blizzard. But going east, toward Fargo, the highway remained closed by snowdrifts and blowing snow as the blizzard moved into Minnesota, closing more roads there. And police wouldn't let anyone drive out of Marshall, Minn., where trucker Tom Leesch had been stuck in a motel since Tuesday morning because of the blowing snow.

One of the biggest snowstorms to hit the northern Plains this winter dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of South Dakota and Minnesota, stranding travelers and closing hundreds of schools. Freezing rain knocked out power to homes across northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, and hundreds of traffic accidents were reported, including two deaths when a taxi slid into a tractor-trailer near Minneapolis.

A gusty storm system piled up nearly a foot of snow across the northern Plains on Monday, shutting down highways and closing schools as it ended an unseasonable stretch of warm, dry weather. Wet, blowing snow made highways from Wyoming to Minnesota dangerously slick and blotted out the landscape. "It's snowing like mad and it's blowing like mad," said Doreen Peppel of Naper, Neb. "My husband said we have 2-foot drifts in some places."

A mixture of snow, ice and rain disrupted travel, closed schools and threatened to cause flooding across a broad band of the central United States from the northern Plains to the Deep South on Monday. Sheets of ice sent vehicles spinning across roadways and forced pedestrians to adopt an awkward shuffle to keep from falling. Visibility was a half-mile, and thickening snow covered a treacherous layer of ice, blamed for several pileups in eastern Nebraska, an official said.

Temperatures plunged well below zero and combined with blowing snow, sending residents across the Rockies and northern Plains scrambling for wool sweaters and parkas. The mercury in thermometers in Casper, Wyo., hit 19 degrees below zero, shattering the town's record for the date of zero degrees, set in 1995. Parts of North Dakota also stayed in the single digits, and icy temperatures dipped as far south as Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa.

A winter storm blanketed parts of the northern Plains with more than a foot of snow Thursday. "You couldn't even see. Freezing rain, snow was blowing. It was just terrible," said Melvin Walker, a truck driver who was forced to pull off the road and wait at a truck stop because of the conditions. Many schools were closed, and authorities warned against traveling in several counties because of icy roads and poor visibility.

Residents of the Northern Plains dug out Wednesday from the first snowstorm of the season, a pre-winter blast that left more than 1 million people without power and at least five people dead. Trees snapped by high winds claimed the lives of two people in Wisconsin, one in Michigan and one in Kentucky. A slick highway was blamed for a Minnesota traffic death.

Thousands of volunteers piled sandbags Tuesday in a desperate effort to hold off rising rivers across the flood-ravaged northern Plains. Record-low April temperatures created dangerous ice jams on swollen waterways and froze flood waters around and inside homes, cars and anything else caught in the overflow. In Wahpeton, a city of 10,000 about 50 miles south of Fargo, residents scrambled to plug gaps in dikes that had been purposely breached to allow trapped flood waters to flow out.

Snowbound cross-country bus passengers whooped and hollered for joy Wednesday as westbound Interstate 94 began opening to traffic after a two-day blizzard. But going east, toward Fargo, the highway remained closed by snowdrifts and blowing snow as the blizzard moved into Minnesota, closing more roads there. And police wouldn't let anyone drive out of Marshall, Minn., where trucker Tom Leesch had been stuck in a motel since Tuesday morning because of the blowing snow.