Millions of north Texas and southern Oklahoma residents on Tuesday braced for tornadoes and heavy rains, as an equal number of Americans in the Rockies and Midwest prepared for blinding snow.
A tornado watch was issued for Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin counties in north Texas, according to the National Weather Service. The watch is set to expire around 11 a.m.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport issued a “shelter in place” warning at 8:51 a.m. CST asking anyone near one of the nation’s busiest airports to hunker down inside and away from any windows, before that caution was cleared in less that 10 minutes.
Big-rig trucks have already been toppled by high winds Tuesday morning in Parker and Wise counties in Texas, according to the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center.
About 17 million people who live in parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi could be hit with tornadoes, large hail and gusts of more than 70 mph.
As those residents take shelter from impending storms, another 17 million Americans from the central Rockies to the northern Great Lakes were under winter weather alerts.
This included blizzard alerts for some living in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Up to two feet of snow could fall on those areas.
Westbound Interstate 70 was closed near the Kansas-Colorado border due to fear of dangerous winter weather, officials in both states said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
