A major winter storm will finish carving a path from the central United States and Midwest to the nation's capital on Monday morning, after punishing many states with a mix of snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain.
Kansas was very difficult. Much of the state was under winter storm and hurricane warnings on Sunday. In a large city in Kansas, residents were sheltering in the middle of streets covered in snow and ice, and the streets were considered too treacherous to walk.
Fast-falling snow accumulated more than four inches in two hours Sunday morning. Some areas experienced severe lightning and thunder along with wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour as the storm moved through the region.
“This is a rare tropical storm for Kansas City,” Gary Lezak, the area's longtime meteorologist, said Sunday. “It's freakishly cold. This storm is 12 hours away as the storm is intensifying.”
The storm caused many accidents over the weekend. West of Salina, Kan., a fire truck, several tractor trailers, and passenger cars overturned. Several trucks were stuck in ditches as the icy roads became impassable.
On Sunday morning, Ben Gardner, a trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol, shared on social media that he was at the I-135 and I-70 interchange in Saline County, where Kansas Department of Transportation and emergency crews were battling treacherous weather again. road conditions.
“If you don't need to go, please stay at home,” he pleaded.
The National Weather Service warned that up to 15 inches of snow (the most accumulation in a decade) was expected from the storm, reducing visibility to hazardous levels and making travel “extremely hazardous.”
The Mid-Atlantic braces for snowfall and freezing rain.
On Monday, the storm moves into the Mid-Atlantic, where moderate to heavy snow is forecast to disrupt travel and daily activities. Pittsburgh was expected to see snow before the morning and evening commutes.
The Weather Prediction Center's winter storm severity will not be as high as Sunday, but moderate impacts, including dangerous driving conditions, are expected in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania.
Several states in the storm's path – including Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey – have declared states of emergency, while Maryland has declared a state of preparedness. The declarations are intended to improve states' response to storms in a variety of ways.
Baltimore and Washington, DC, are both expected to receive three to five inches of new snow accumulation on Monday.
Freezing rain will accompany the snow, from Kentucky to the Mid-Atlantic, creating treacherous conditions and the potential for power outages.
As of Monday morning, more than 60,000 customers were without power in Kentucky and 50,000 lost power in Indiana, according to PowerOutage.us, a tracking website.
The cold continues.
By Tuesday morning, the snow is expected to taper off, although light snow may persist in parts of the Central Appalachians. Cold, blustery weather is forecast for the next few days, with afternoon highs in the 30s in Washington, and overnight lows in the 20s.
“It's going to be very cold for most of the week,” said Bob Oravec of the Weather Prediction Center. From the eastern Rockies to the East Coast, temperatures will be about 10 to 12 degrees below the annual average.
Yan Zhuang reporting contributed.
Source link
