Snowstorm hits northern US, knocks out power, disrupts flights | Gallery News

A powerful winter storm lashed the northern United States, triggering the closure of interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.

It prompted the first blizzard warning in Southern California in decades.

Few places were untouched by the wild weather, including some at the opposite extreme: long-standing record highs were broken in cities in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

About 280,000 properties were without power across the country, according to Poweroutage.us, almost half of them in Michigan, where snow, sleet and freezing rain were icing power lines, making them vulnerable to gusting winds.

The wintry mix hit hard in the northern US, closing schools and offices, even shutting down the Minnesota Legislature. Travel was difficult. The weather contributed to more than 1,600 US flight cancellations, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

More than 400 of those were due to arrive or depart from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Another 5,000-plus flights were delayed across the country.