ATLANTA — Powerful storms that killed two people in Mississippi and ripped roofs from buildings in a small Oklahoma town charged across the nation, threatening more communities Wednesday in the central to eastern United States with wide-ranging weather.

Meanwhile, forecasters warned that a Pacific storm was expected to bring widespread rain and mountain snow across California and other parts of the West from Wednesday into Friday.

A tornado watch was issued Wednesday morning for parts of North and South Carolina until early afternoon. Tornado warnings were issued in Florida, North and South Carolina and Virginia on Wednesday morning.

Mardi Gras Adjusts to Weather Threats

On Tuesday, high winds forced some changes to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which moved up and shortened the two biggest parades to wrap them up ahead of the bad weather. Tornadoes touched down Tuesday in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, according to preliminary information from the National Weather Service.

In Mississippi, two people died due to the severe weather, Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday in a social media post without going into detail. WAPT-TV reported that one person died from a falling power line in Madison County, while a driver in the same county was killed by a tree falling on his car.

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Blizzard Conditions Hit Midwest

Blizzard conditions hit eastern Nebraska overnight into Wednesday, bringing around 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of snow and winds up to 65 mph (105 kph), limiting visibility and closing numerous snowy roads, including a stretch of Interstate 80.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul area, southern Minnesota and much of Iowa were on the downward slide of a powerful winter storm. The storm brought the heaviest snow of the season to Minneapolis, where the National Weather Service reported 7.4 inches (18.8 centimeters) at the airport, and it was still falling early Wednesday. That easily beat the 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) that fell at the airport Dec. 19.

Other parts of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area got hit even harder, with 11 inches reported in Stillwater and Woodbury and some communities getting as much as 12 to 13 inches.

“I wouldn’t want to say it’s unheard of or unusual but it’s still pretty remarkable to see the power of nature with these storms,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jacob Beitlich said.

Widespread Impacts Across the Nation

The slippery roads led to dozens of crashes, the Minnesota State Patrol reported. As of 7 a.m., the State Patrol had recorded 70 crashes with property damage, two injury crashes, 111 vehicles off the road, 25 spinouts and seven jackknifed semis.

Schools across the Midwest closed, delayed opening or switched to e-learning. The winds that caused significant damage in some suburban Kansas City neighborhoods brought down trees and limbs that blocked roads and knocked out power to some buildings, according to Shawnee Mission District, one of the largest in Kansas. The district delayed opening.

In a South Carolina community near Myrtle Beach, where firefighters have been battling wildfires since the weekend, Horry County Fire Rescue said in a social media post that air drops weren’t planned Wednesday due to heavy winds and that could limit strategic responses to flare-ups and spot fires. Firefighters won’t enter the woods if winds become too intense because many trees have been structurally compromised. Instead, they will instead flow water from outside those areas.

The storms have left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity service on Wednesday morning across the central and southeastern United States, including more than 98,000 customers in Texas, about 48,000 in Tennessee and about 42,000 in Alabama, according to PowerOutage.us.

Gusts in the northeast U.S. could also lead to ground stops or delays at major airports in that region, the Federal Aviation Administration said in its operational plan for the day. The storm was beginning to snarl traffic at some of the nation’s busiest airports on the East Coast, which typically causes ripple effects throughout the nation’s commercial aviation system. Nearly 600 flights scheduled to fly into or out of U.S. airports on Wednesday have been canceled, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks cancellations and delays nationwide.