An explosion of snow, ice, wind and falling temperatures created dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central US on Sunday as a disruptive winter storm brought the possibility of the “heaviest snowfall in a decade” to some areas.
Snow and ice covered major highways across most of Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the state’s National Guard was activated to help stuck motorists. At least 8 inches of snow was expected, especially north of Interstate 70, as the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where snowstorms were reported. The warning was extended to New Jersey for Monday and early Tuesday.
“For locations in this region that receive the highest snow totals, it could be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the weather service said early Sunday.
About 63 million people in the U.S. were under some type of winter weather advisory, watch or warning on Sunday, according to Bob Oravec of the National Weather Service.
The polar vortex of ultracold air usually revolves around the North Pole. People in the US, Europe and Asia experience the intense cold as the vortex escapes and extends south.
Studies show a rapidly warming Arctic is partly responsible for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its icy grip.
Snow and ice in the weather forecast
In Indiana, snow completely covered parts of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41, prompting Indiana State Police to plead with motorists to stay off the roads as crews worked to keep up with the pace of the precipitation.
“It’s snowing so hard, the snow plows go through it and within half an hour the roads are completely covered again,” said Sgt. said Todd Ringle.
A portion of I-70 in central Kansas was closed Saturday afternoon. About 10 inches of snow had fallen in parts of the state, with snow and sleet totals expected to top 14 inches in parts of Kansas and northern Missouri.
Parts of New York State received 3 feet or more of snow as a result of a lake effect event expected to last until late Sunday afternoon.
The storm was then forecast to move into the Ohio Valley and reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday and Monday, bringing a hard freeze as far south as Florida.
Car wrecks start when the storm hits
The National Weather Service warned that travel could be “very difficult to impossible” in many states, including Kansas and Missouri.
Indiana State Police reported a handful of spinouts and crashes on Sunday.
A day earlier, a fire truck, several tractor units and passenger cars overturned west of Salina. Rigs also got hit with a knife and ended up in ditches, state highway patrolman Ben Gardner said. He posted a video he slid his boots over the asphalt of the highway as if he were on skates. He begged people to stay off the roads.
Governors in neighboring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency.
Air and train traffic also deteriorated
The storms also caused major damage to the national railways, leading to cancellations. Amtrak said in a statement that “adjustments have been made to many rail lines without alternative transportation being offered.”
More than twenty cancellations were predicted on Sunday and more than forty were planned for Monday.
The cancellations affected large parts of the country, but the Midwest was especially hard hit. A train between Chicago and New York and several regional trains between Chicago and St. Louis were among the canceled Sundays.
Nearly 200 flights to and from St. Louis Lambert International Airport have been canceled, according to tracking platform FlightAware.
Temperatures are dropping, but no records are being broken
The eastern two-thirds of the country will be affected from Monday dangerous, frigid cold and chills, forecasters said. Temperatures may be 12 to 25 degrees (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) lower than normal.
Temperatures in Chicago on Sunday hovered in the teens (minus 7 to 10 degrees Celsius) and around zero in Minneapolis, while they dropped to 11 degrees lower in International Falls, Minnesota, near the Canadian border.
Northeastern states are more likely to experience several cold days after a mostly mild start to winter, said Jon Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. A plume of cold air moving down from Canada will likely result in a cold but dry week, he said.
The cold air will likely grip the eastern half of the country as far away as Georgia, Palmer said, with parts of the East Coast experiencing freezing temperatures and lows dipping into the single digits in some areas.
Winds could also increase as the week progresses, creating potentially dangerous conditions for people exposed to the elements for extended periods of time, Palmer said.
The disturbances are spreading southwards
The National Weather Service predicted 8 to 12 inches (about 20 to 30 centimeters) of snow for the Annapolis, Maryland area, with temperatures remaining below freezing throughout the weekend.
In a statement on
Similar statements were issued in Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and in cities in central Illinois.
“This is the real deal,” meteorologist John Gordon said at a news conference in Louisville, Kentucky. “Did the weather people blow this out of proportion? No.”
Read more about AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri, contributed. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland. Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.