Snow, rain and gusting winds lashed a large swath of the Central U.S. on Monday, dashing spring hopes, as the South braced for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes and as the risk of wildfires in southern Texas reached critical levels. The storm hit with parts of the country still in recovery mode from their own severe weather, particularly in the Northeast. Tens of thousands of people still lacked power in Maine, where a storm coated parts of the state in thick ice. The new storm was expected to bring strong winds, sleet, freezing rain and snow to a broad swath from the Dakotas to the Gulf Coast through Tuesday. “A lot of people get excited because they think the spring is coming in and the winter’s over, but since I’ve been little, every time there’s that one last snowstorm that we always get, and here it is,” said Jarvis Smith, of Golden Valley, Minnesota, as he shoveled snow. Warnings or advisories for blizzard or winter storm conditions covered much of Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, upper Michigan, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. In northern parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, snow could fall as fast as 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour, the National Weather Service said.
