High winds, bitter cold hit Midwest

ASSOCIATED PRESS

It was so cold Sunday in the Upper Midwest, and visibility was so poor in blowing snow, that church services were called off in parts of Ohio and Michigan. At noon, thermometers in one North Dakota town still registered only 20 below zero.

The windy, bitterly cold weather blanketed a region from the Dakotas across much of Minnesota into Wisconsin and Michigan. Subzero temperatures at midday extended into northern Iowa, the National Weather Service said.

Snow whipped up by the bitingly cold wind created hazardous driving conditions Sunday in Michigan. State police said the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge was closed because of whiteout conditions, and the sheriff’s office in southwest Michigan’s Cass County said visibility was less than 20 feet.

Churches across western Michigan canceled services, The Grand Rapids Press reported.

“The road conditions are just terrible. There’s been slide-offs all over and the roads are very icy,” said William Marino, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Rapids.

Snow drifts also closed some roads in Wisconsin and Michigan, police said.

Sunday’s Lansing Polar Plunge charity benefit was reset to Feb. 24, the Lansing State Journal reported. Sunday’s midday temperature there was only zero.