States Issue Warnings as Big Winter Storm Bears Down on Plains, Midwest

Officials issued winter storm warnings Thursday from Colorado through Illinois, with as much as a foot of snow expected in some states, the Associated Press reported.

The storm could be the Midwest’s worst since a February 2011 blizzard that was blamed for about two dozen deaths, CBS News reported.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) closed state government from Thursday morning through Friday morning and urged residents to stay off the roads, AP reported.

That state’s Interstate 70 corridor could get more than a foot of snow with drifts adding to the danger for drivers, a National Weather Service meteorologist told AP.

The Missouri Department of Transportation planned to have salt trucks on the roads before the storm arrived.

The storm is expected to push east across the central plains into Iowa and northern Missouri, where up to a foot of snow is possible, according to the National Weather Service.