From blizzards to tornadoes to 'baseball' hail, much of US bracing for weather wallop

Much of the country's midsection will face severe storms and a high risk of tornadoes. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

By Erin McClam and John Newland, NBC News

Blizzard warnings were in effect Tuesday in Colorado, where the temperature plunged more than 50 degrees in less than 24 hours and the wind chill approached zero. Forecasters also expect hurricane-force blasts of frigid air in Utah and heavy snow in the Dakotas.

The culprit is a deep dip in the jet stream that swung west and pulled arctic air far into the country. As it collides with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, strong storms and tornadoes are possible in the Great Plains and Texas.

?It?s just brutal to be outside,? said Eric Fisher, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

Full coverage from Weather.com

In Denver, the temperature plummeted from 71 degrees at 2 p.m. Monday to 16 degrees at 7 a.m. Tuesday, with a wind chill of 1. More than 300 flights had been canceled into and out of Denver since Monday night.

Forecasters said Denver could get as much as 11 inches of snow and South Dakota more than a foot, with snow stretching as far north and east as Minnesota and Nebraska. In Utah, wind gusts of 75 mph were possible, The Weather Channel reported.

The calendar may say spring, but April is the second-snowiest month of the year in Denver. The city has averaged 9 inches in April since 1882, second only to the 11.5 inches it gets in an average March, according to the National Weather Service.

Seth Wenig / AP

Kids including Branden Rivera, 9, spray each other with water from a drinking fountain while enjoying the warm weather in New York on Monday. Things may not be so pleasant later this week, as a massive storm system moves east.

The weather pattern threatened to bring damaging wind, large hail and perhaps tornadoes to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, and weaker storms later in the day in the Ohio Valley.

?We?re looking at the gamut today for severe weather,? Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said.

As the system moves east, severe storms are possible Wednesday across a boomerang-shaped swath of the country from the Texas Gulf Coast north through Indiana and into western Pennsylvania.

Severe storms could move into Georgia, West Virginia and the Carolinas on Thursday.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 4:59 AM EDT

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