High winds cause power outages and property destruction as wild March weather blows in

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power Saturday after high winds raked eastward from the Great Lakes region, leaving trees down and substantial property damage in their wake.

Nearly 600,000 customers were still affected at midday in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

A 66 mph (106 kph) gust at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday was deemed its fourth-strongest on record that was not caused by a thunderstorm, according to the National Weather Service. Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport saw winds hit 85 mph (137 km) Friday afternoon.

Winds took down a gas station canopy in New Franklin, Ohio, and an auto parts store sign in Baldwin, Pennsylvania. Trees and tree limbs fell into or onto homes and cars from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. The roof of a school building in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Illinois, was severely damaged by wind.

High winds fueled multiple wildfires across a broad swath of Nebraska’s range and grassland, causing one death in Arthur County, officials said. The victim was not immediately identified and the sheriff’s office did not disclose other details about the death.

What state officials have dubbed the Morrill County fire has burned at least 708 square miles (about 1,834 square kilometers) across four counties since Thursday. At least 12 structures have been destroyed, according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

Dangerous winds are but one piece of a wild weather mosaic that includes heavy rains in Hawaii, triple-digit heat ahead in Phoenix and the return of winter cold to the Midwest and Northeast. Chicago was expected to approach the single digits Fahrenheit by Tuesday, with Minneapolis seeing lows around zero (minus 18 C).

Several Minnesota cities have already declared snow emergencies starting Sunday, when what could be the season’s largest snowfall is expected to hit. Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula are also in the crosshairs.

AccuWeather is describing conditions as a “potent triple-threat March megastorm” from Sunday into Monday.

“It’s definitely a very active weather weekend, that’s for sure,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Feerick said. “It’s a highly amplified pattern, which means you get a lot of extremes. Also, not just the Lower 48, but Hawaii’s getting hit hard right now with some very heavy rain.”

Feerick said people along the Wisconsin-Iowa border might see some ice as travel conditions become dangerous in large parts of the Upper Midwest.

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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.