Blast of wintry weather hits central U.S.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A blast of wintry weather blew into parts of the Rockies and Upper Midwest on Monday, bringing a foot of snow in some areas, along with plunging temperatures. The cold weather is expected to eventually blanket the central U.S. from the Rockies to the Great Lakes region.

The frigid air was pushed by a powerful storm that hit Alaska with hurricane-force winds over the weekend, and threatened to bury several states in snow and send temperatures as much as 40 degrees below average.

By Monday afternoon, areas of northwest Montana saw 14 inches of snow; parts of North Dakota saw as much as 8 inches; a community in central Minnesota got more than 16 inches; some Wisconsin communities got a foot or more of snow; and parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula had 9 inches, with as much as 2 feet expected by the time the storm ends.

Winter is still more than a month away, but it may not feel like it. The cold air coming with the snow will be around for a while, said Joe Calderone, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service.

Snow was welcome in northern Wyoming, where snow and arctic cold stopped a raging wildfire which had burned almost 2 square miles by Sunday evening.

Elsewhere, the weather wasn't so welcome. In Minnesota, the State Patrol said at least two people were killed in accidents on icy roads. Separately, a semitrailer carrying a load of turkeys to a processing plant slipped off Interstate 94 and overturned.