Juneau, Alaska • A massive storm fueled by the remnants of Typhoon Nuri did not do much damage in Alaska's sparsely populated Aleutian Islands, but forecasters say it's anchoring a system that will push a frigid blast of air into the mainland United States and send temperatures plunging early this week.
Parts of the lower 48 states could see temperatures between 20 and 40 degrees below average, the National Weather Service said Sunday.
Snow was expected to move over the northern high plains and into the upper Great Lakes by Monday evening, bringing accumulations of close to a foot in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin and up to 2 feet in the upper peninsula of Michigan, forecasters said.
The storm peaked Friday with sustained winds of 70 mph and gusts up to 96 mph on Alaska's Shemya Island. While it has weakened, it also is helping change the jet stream and anchoring a cold pattern that will send a surge of arctic air from the northern high Plains into the central Plains, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the College Park, Maryland, weather service office.
Winter storm warnings were in effect Sunday for parts of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota with 4 to 5 inches of snow across the plains of Montana and up to 10 inches possible in the mountains.
Snow totals in areas could be hard to measure because of the wind, said meteorologist Chris Zelzer, of the weather service's Great Falls, Montana, office.
"The big news for us will be the combination of really cold temperatures and really breezy conditions," he said.
Highs, which are typically in the low 40s for the Great Falls area this time of year, are forecast to dip to 7 degrees early this week and stay below freezing into the weekend. Sub-zero lows are also expected.
"After last year's hard winter, people don't seem to be messing around this year," David Lansing, assistant manager at Frattallone's Ace Hardware in Burnsville, Minnesota, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "We're selling a few shovels here and there, but they're mostly going right for the snow blowers."
This undated photo provided by Julien's Auctions shows a jacket worn by Madonna in the 1985 comedy "Desperately Seeking Susan" which sold for $252,000 during Julien's two-day Icons & Idols: Rock n' Roll auction in Beverly Hills, Calif., that started Friday, Nov. 8, 2014. The auction house says the gown and stole from her "Material Girl" video sold for $73,125, while the wedding dress the pop icon wore when she married Sean Penn in 1985 brought in $81,250. Other highlights include the gown from the film "Evita" which sold for $15,000 and her "A League of Their Own" uniform which sold for $31,250. (AP Photo/Julien's Auctions)