More blizzard woes in Dakotas; hailstorm in Texas

A huge weather system stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico piled more deep snow on parts of the Dakotas on Tuesday and battered parts of Texas with damaging hail.

Tuesday, March 31st 2009, 12:21 pm

By: News 9

More blizzard woes in Dakotas; hailstorm in Texas

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A huge weather system stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico piled more deep snow on parts of the Dakotas on Tuesday and battered parts of Texas with damaging hail.
   The second major storm in a week dumped more than a foot of snow on sections of South Dakota.
   The state closed a large stretch of Interstate 90 across the south-central part of the state and a small section of I-90 remained closed in Wyoming. Parts of Interstate 29, which runs north-south along the eastern edge of the Dakotas, also were closed because of ice and blowing snow.
   In North Dakota, 17 inches of new snow fell in Bismarck. That puts the central North Dakota city an inch shy of its record season total of 101.06 inches set in 1996-1997.
   Blowing snow created whiteout conditions in the Nebraska Panhandle, and some roads and schools closed across the northern part of the state.
   The storm's stiff wind threatened to create high waves that could batter levees along the swollen Red River at Fargo, N.D. The dikes were holding but authorities were concerned about runoff that will result when the latest snowfall melts in the weeks ahead.
   On the southern Plains, hail damaged roofs and cars in suburbs of Dallas late Monday. No injuries were reported. The National Weather Service warned of the potential for severe storms later in the day Tuesday in southern Mississippi, which was struck by tornadoes last week.