Crippling blizzard brings whiteout conditions as major winter storm barrels through northern Plains

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See the blizzard crippling the northern Plains with near-white-out conditions

A blizzard is barreling through the North, bringing a major ice storm and heavy snow to the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Eastern Colorado and southwestern Minnesota.

A major winter storm is barreling through the North as Blizzard Warnings stretch into their second day Wednesday across eastern Wyoming, western South Dakota, western Nebraska and a sliver of southeastern Montana.

Along the storm's path, highways have closed as power outages soar, coinciding with the same coast-to-coast system bringing a multi-day severe weather outbreak to the South.

Scenes like this jackknifed truck east of Highway 44 near Scenic, South Dakota, were common sights in the region Tuesday.

Strong winds and slippery roadways forced this tractor trailer to jackknife in Pennington County, South Dakota.

(Pennington County Sheriff)

The largest concerns with the storm are significant icing, and blizzard conditions bringing in feet of snow and wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour leading to near-whiteout conditions.

Schools in Fargo, North Dakota, canceled all after school activities in advance of the accumulating snow.

"What we've seen are reports up to eight and a half inches (of snow), primarily in the southern part of the state. But what we're getting is a lot of really wet snow. And underneath that, we have some freezing rain that's really impacted travel both on our highways and in the air," Darin Hanson, North Dakota Director of Emergency Services, told FOX Weather. "We've got a travel alert covering virtually the entire state right now." 

Photos from highway cameras on Tuesday in Nebraska and South Dakota showed near whiteout conditions amid snow covered roadways.

In western Nebraska, portions of Interstate 80 and Interstate 76 were closed, according to the Nebraska Department of Transportation, with highway closures spreading east with the snowfall. 

COAST-TO-COAST WINTER STORM BRINGS BLIZZARD TO NORTHERN PLAINS BEFORE SNOW THREATENS NORTHEAST LATE WEEK

In South Dakota, transportation officials closed both eastbound and westbound lanes of Interstate 90 from Chamberlain to the Wyoming state line due to freezing rain, heavy snow and high winds. Some secondary highways were also impassable, the agency said.

A South Dakota plow on Highway 44 tries to clear snow from the roadway in tropical storm force winds.

(South Dakota Highway Patrol)

One trooper in South Dakota showed off nearly 1-inch thick ice covering his patrol car’s antenna.

HOW MUCH ICE IS NEEDED TO KNOCK OUT POWER, DAMAGE TREES?

Cattle braves the 50 mph wind gusts near Scenic, South Dakota, with temperatures in the teens and the wind, the temperature feels like 3 degrees below 0.

Some ranchers woke up early to drive their cattle to safety before the blizzard hit.

Only the storm chasers risked the road in Brush, Colorado, where the National Weather Service issued a Blizzard Warning until midnight.

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Storm tracker drives through 3-foot snow drifts in Colorado storm

A storm chaser braved a Colorado storm outside of Brush. You can hear him say, "We just went through a 3-foot drift."

Even after the Blizzard Warning expires, the Plains will be dealing with this storm for almost 2 days.

"As we look into the next 24 hours and into Thursday morning, we're looking at a round two of snow and that's going to be another heavy, wet snow," said Hanson of North Dakota. "Winds are going to pick up. That's going to make travel even worse. And where we're at right now is a lot of the local snow plows have had to pull off the roads for their own safety."

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