Marquette, Michigan – Drivers across the Upper Midwest are running out of safe travel windows as Blizzard Elsa buries highways with heavy snow, drops visibility below a quarter-mile and whips winds high enough to snap branches and knock out power from the Dakotas to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
According to the National Weather Service, blizzard warnings cover large parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois and northern Michigan, with some of the most extreme totals centered on northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. Warnings in parts of Michigan run through early Tuesday, while much of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa remain under blizzard alerts through Monday morning or Monday afternoon.
Northern Wisconsin faces some of the storm’s most severe snowfall, with 20 to 30 inches posted for Door County, Marathon County and communities around Rhinelander, Wausau and Green Bay. In Minnesota, counties including Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota and Scott could see 7 to 18 inches with gusts up to 50 mph, raising the risk of near-whiteout travel in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Iowa’s threat leans on wind as much as snow, with gusts of 55 to 65 mph around Des Moines, Mason City, Waterloo and Fort Dodge.
In Marquette, Munising, Escanaba and Newberry, the warning calls for 2 to 4 feet of snow with gusts up to 55 to 60 mph, enough to make travel life-threatening. Residents across the region should avoid non-essential trips, charge devices now and keep food, blankets and flashlights ready as more alerts and road closures remain possible through Monday and, in parts of Michigan, into Tuesday.
