Rain and high winds blew through huge swaths of the Midwest and East Coast on Wednesday, just one day after much of the nation experienced record high temperatures.
There were reports of six tornadoes, five in northern Illinois and one in Michigan, between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
The tornadoes were among the first ever recorded in February in the Chicago metro area.
About 123 million Americans lived in regions with high wind alerts on Wednesday, with forecasts of at least 39 mph expected to hit Chicago, Buffalo, New York, Boston and Atlanta.
The heaviest rains in the Northeast are expected to fall on New York City between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.; on Washington, D.C., from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and on Boston from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Threats of heavy rain also trigged flood watches in some regions of northern New England and the Ohio River Valley.
The weather whiplash from Tuesday to Wednesday included:
- The mercury dipping into the 20s, with windchills in the teens, in Chicago. The high had reached the low 70s on Tuesday.
- Residents shivering in Kansas City, Missouri, where windchill temperatures near zero followed highs in the low 70s on Tuesday.
- A windchill of -14 on Wednesday morning in Minneapolis after a high of 53 on Tuesday.
- Locals waking up to a windchill of -9 in Des Moines, Iowa, after it was 64 degrees at one point Tuesday.
- A 15-degree windchill in St. Louis on Wednesday morning after a summerlike 86 degrees on Tuesday.
There were 92 record high temperatures recorded on Tuesday from the southern Plains to the Northeast.
Despite gloomy weather in much of America, there were still some pockets looking forward to well above-normal temperatures on Wednesday.
- Rain will not extinguish an unseasonably warm 61 degrees in Albany, New York.
- Even with wind and rain, the mercury could still reach 60 degrees in Burlington, Vermont.
- It was expected to reach 67 degrees by lunchtime in Syracuse, New York.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada mountain range is bracing for its heaviest snow of the season. Between 5 to 10 feet of snow could fall on communities between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite between Thursday and Sunday.
Drivers near the national park have been told to get chains ready for travel in the region, starting on Thursday.