CHICAGO (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm that buried the U.S. Plains and left at least three people dead moved into the southern Great Lakes region on Tuesday, where it snarled the evening commute in Chicago and Milwaukee, created near-whiteout conditions in some areas and forced hundreds of flight cancellations.
Much of the region was under either a winter storm warning or a winter weather advisory, according to the National Weather Service, as the system's potent blend of wet snow, sleet and strong winds bore down on north central Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana and Ohio.
The most intense snowfall and greatest accumulations were expected through Tuesday night, the NWS said. With winds gusting up to 35 mph, near-whiteout conditions were reported in some rural areas, the agency said.