Storm dumps snow on Midwest, bitter cold to follow

In the West, pounded by the storm's rain and snow earlier this week, wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees swept across portions of southern Montana. The biting wind also moved across Wyoming and South Dakota, according to the National Weather Service.

Winds were expected to diminish Wednesday evening across the Midwest and blizzard warnings were nearly over. But dangerously cold conditions were to follow with temperatures falling to near or below zero overnight.

In northern New York, up to a foot fell on Wednesday and more than 3 feet was expected by the week's end. Areas in Maine and New Hampshire received up to a foot of snow, and warnings about winds of 40 mph to 50 mph were issued for coastal areas of Maine for Wednesday night, said Dan St. Jean, a National Weather Service Forecaster in Maine.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Baenen in St. Paul, Minn., Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Pat Condon in Minneapolis, Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Nigel Duara in Iowa City, Iowa, and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.