What the East Coast just experienced was a throwback to a Midwestern weather event.
In Minnesota, it was the Halloween Blizzard. In Iowa, it was ice. Lots and lots of ice. It wreaked havoc on trick-or-treating and resulted in some high school playoff games being played out of state in the Dakota Dome days later. From the National Weather Service in central Iowa:
A major winter storm pounded the upper Midwest from October 30th into November 2nd with some of the most severe effects occurring on Halloween. Snow moved into southern Iowa on the afternoon of the 30th and changed to mixed precipitation and ice on the morning of the 31st and continuing into late afternoon on November 1st. Total ice accumulations ranged from 1 to 2 inches from southwestern into north central Iowa and 2 to 3 inches across southern and southeastern Minnesota.
In northwestern Iowa the precipitation fell as all snow, with total accumulations of 8 inches or more across the area ranging up to 15.0 inches at Estherville and strong winds producing blizzard conditions into November 2nd. The damage and hazardous travel conditions were so severe and extensive that 52 of the 99 counties in Iowa were declared disaster areas.
Highways and interstates were closed across most of the state and Halloween festivities were cancelled at many locations. As the storm system moved further northeast it dumped 36.9 inches of snow at Duluth which is the largest storm total snowfall accumulation on record in Minnesota.
The Shakopee (MN) Valley News says it was “one of the costliest ice storms in Iowa’s history as utility damage totaled $63 million, and 80,000 homes were without power.”