Heavy snow and ice. in minnesota, snowfall rates of two inches an hour. parts of the upper midwest seeing more than a foot. it s all part of the same system that pummeled the west coast over the weekend, with five feet of snow in the sierras and rain that swamped san francisco businesses. and compromised levees in sacramento county, stranding orie discovering the body of one person in a vehicle. well, david, here in wilton county, california, this is one of several breaks in the levee. it will take around 4,000 dumptruck loads of material like that to ultimately fill this roughly 40-foot wide break in this levee. and it is very much a race against time, as there is another rain system moving in later this week, david. yeah, these levees and the saturated earth already. mola, thank you. let s get to ginger zee tonight, in the bay area, as well. timing out this next dangerous new storm, but ginger, i know, you were reporting in, you wanted to start with the most immediate threat tonigh
The Upper Midwest US will be expecting a major winter storm that could possibly pull in a blizzard with the possible occurrence of heavy snow and howling winds.
The region as of a short time ago. air travel also affected tonight. planes being de-iced before takeoff. these images right here from the airport in grand rapids, michigan. and along the massive snow totals, a blast of bitter cold. wind chills below freezing for most of the country by tomorrow morning. ginger zee is standing by to time this out, but first tonight, matt rivers near buffalo, new york, tonight. reporter: tonight, drivers facing whiteout conditions. an arctic blast fuelling what the national weather service is calling a crippling, life threatening storm. there will not be a time from 7:00 p.m. tonight until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow where it is safe to drive. reporter: wrecked vehicles already lining highways north of syracuse, in parish, new york. continuous snowfall rates of up to four inches an hour expected in some spots. in buffalo, they re bracing for a potentially paralyzing accumulation. you re telling me this storm is different than other ones you ve seen? the
Developing around the great lakes. some areas like my hometown of buffalo, new york could get up to six feet. six feet of snow. let s bring in our meteorologist jennifer gray. jennifer, how many people, first of all, will be affected by this monstrous storm? we re talking about 5 to 6 million people around the great lakes. and as you know, wolf, the snow is basically driven by the direction of the wind. so right now buffalo s not in the snow. but where going to get a little bit of a wind shift. and that s basically going to steer this snow off of the lakes and into the buffalo region tonight. it s really going to intensify and then get stronger as we go into tomorrow. we could see snowfall rates at three to four inches an hour. that s an incredible amount of snow, wolf. we re going to be talking about anywhere from three to four feet of snow. could see up to five feet of snow across this region. we are going to he see just incredible amounts. anywhere from four to five feet and then