Weather Outside Your Window: Dangerous storm churns out tornadoes, record-breaking snowfall

By Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer

Published Feb. 18, 2022 10:25 AM EST | Updated Feb. 18, 2022 11:04 AM EST

An enormous storm system tore across the central and eastern states from Thursday into Friday, leaving snowfall records, severe weather damage, messy traffic conditions and flood threats in its wake.

The major winter storm first made its presence felt along the West Coast earlier this week when it brought snow and hail to areas outside of Los Angeles days after the city saw a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit in the midst of a winter heat wave.

High wind advisories stretching from Texas to Maine, spanning a distance of more than 1,900 miles, heralded the storm's approach. A battle between warm and cold air sparked severe thunderstorms from Oklahoma to Alabama to Kentucky and delivered a mix of strong winds, hail and tornadoes.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center recorded at least four preliminary tornado reports across Alabama, including in Jefferson, Shelby, Fayette, and Tuscaloosa counties. Hail with a diameter of up to 1 inch was also reported. No fatalities were reported, but a mobile home in Leeds, Alabama, was damaged after a possible tornado, according to The Associated Press.

(AP Photo/Butch Dill)

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First responders survey a damaged mobile home after a possible tornado passed through Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Leeds, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

By Friday morning, Pennsylvania was dealing with a considerable number of power outages as at least 60,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.US. The majority of power outages were confined to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Some of the strongest wind gusts on Thursday were recorded across Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi, with Wears Valley, Tennessee, a small town in the eastern part of the state near the border with North Carolina, recording a gust of up to 78 mph.

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Across the Midwest, it didn't take long for snow to begin piling up where the air was the coldest. Snow rates of 1-2 inches per hour were recorded in Kansas City, Missouri, early Thursday, blanketing roadways and snarling the morning commute.

By noon, Kansas City was reporting record-breaking snowfall totals. The National Weather Service office in the city measured 6.4 inches of snow by midday Thursday, setting a new daily snowfall record. The city ended up with a total of 7 inches for the day. The previous record in Kansas City for Feb. 17 dated back to 1893, the same year Grover Cleveland was sworn in as the 24th U.S. president when 6.0 inches of snow fell. Other reports from trained weather spotters around the Kansas City area indicated as much as 9.3 inches of snow accumulated on Thursday.

Locations in Kansas such as De Soto, Eudora, Williamstown and Shawnee saw around 10 inches of snowfall throughout Thursday. The snow and cold was a jarring case of weather whiplash for many places across Kansas, which just a day earlier experience temperatures in the mid- to upper 60s.

At least a foot of snow was recorded in Manito, Illinois, while Springfield, Illinois, received 5.2 inches of snow, breaking a daily record of 3 inches that also dated back to 1893.

People walk on a snowy street in Kansas City, Mo., as a winter storm passes through the region Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

The snow wasn't without any hazards, however, with the snow-covered roads creating dangerous travel conditions. At least two Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) troopers were struck on Thursday while out on the road. Both were reported not to have been injured, but the incidents highlighted the need for caution on the roads, and the KHP warned people to stay at home if possible.

Farther northeast, Illinois State Police were on the scene of a multi-vehicle crash on I-39 southbound near mile marker 14 at El Paso. The crash was reported to be several hundred yards long and involved around 100 vehicles, according to The Associated Press. El Paso is located a little over two hours to the southwest of Chicago.

There were significant disruptions to air travel from the cross-country storm as well.

More than 600 flights arriving to and departing from Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports were canceled Thursday, with at least another 283 canceled at Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport, according to FlightAware.

Time-lapse of Interstate 65 after a multi-vehicle pileup closed parts of the interstate.

A state over, a multi-vehicle pileup amid snowy conditions forced the closure of Interstate 65 southbound near Southeast Grove, Indiana, located about 50 miles to the southeast of Chicago. Footage from traffic cameras showed trucks and vehicles at a standstill on a snow-packed highway, and a person on Twitter who claimed to be a truck driver stuck in the mess of traffic said that it was "a repeat of I-95 in Virginia," referring to the traffic backup on the interstate that lasted for more than 24 hours after a snowstorm hit the mid-Atlantic hard in early January.

Temperatures also came crashing down in the central part of the country. Little Rock, Arkansas, had a high of 72 on Thursday, but temperatures were in the upper 20s there early Friday. Memphis, Tennessee, fell just short of hitting 70 Thursday but had a morning temperature of 27 on Friday.

The NWS issued at least two flash flood warnings Thursday associated with ice jams in Ohio and Illinois, respectively. There were multiple high water and swift water rescues in the city of Vermilion, Ohio, according to a tweet from the NWS office in Cleveland. The Vermilion River peaked at 15.82 feet Thursday afternoon, though it began to drop later in the day. This total came just short of the all-time record of 17.1 feet, which was recorded in 1969, according to the NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service.