ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Nine people have been confirmed dead in Central America from Iota’s fury as the system continues to bring life-threatening flash floods and mudslides to the area.
Iota is currently a Tropical Depression with winds of 35 mph, but heavy rain continues to fall over the very mountainous terrain in Central America.
Meanwhile, there are two new areas that could form into a tropical cyclone in the next few days, but the good news is that environmental conditions are not that favorable for quick development.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a storm system in the West helped to spread a wildfire in Reno, Nevada, where more than a dozen homes were damaged Tuesday.
Thankfully, the forward progress of the fire has been stopped while winds gusted 50 to 60 mph in the Reno area Tuesday and, with dry conditions, it was easy for the fire to spread.
The highest wind gust on Tuesday was in Nevada of up to 110 mph in the mountains.
On Wednesday, there are wind, snow and fire alerts that have been issued from California to Missouri.
Gusty dry winds are expected again for the West and into the Plains.
But, at the same time the storm that is bringing all the wind, it is also dumping feet of snow in California’s Sierra Nevada Range and rain will continue from northern California to Oregon and Washington.
In the East, the coldest air of the season is here with freeze warnings and a frost advisory from Alabama to the Carolinas and Virginia where temperatures in the Southeast are at or below freezing for the first time this year.
In the Northeast, New York City is under a freeze warnings as temperatures drop to freezing in the five boroughs where wind chills are down into the 20s and even the teens.
This chilly, winter-like air mass will not last too long in the Northeast or Midwest and, by Thursday and into Friday, temperatures are expected to quickly rebound into the 60s and even the 70s for some.
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
