ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Heavy winter snow, ice, wind and plummeting temperatures in the U.S. caused dangerous travel conditions early Monday morning from central and southern states to the East Coast and several states. Schools and government offices were closed. .
Snow and ice covered major roads in parts of Kansas, western Nebraska and Indiana, and the state's National Guard was called in to help stranded motorists. About 300,000 customers were without power early Monday across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri, according to power company tracking website PowerOutage.us.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Kansas and Missouri, with blizzard conditions producing wind gusts up to 72 kilometers per hour. The warning extended to New Jersey from Monday until early Tuesday.
“The snowiest areas in the region could experience the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Gary Wright wore a hoodie as he and his husband scraped thick ice off their SUV in a slippery apartment complex parking lot in Missouri. Wright said he plans to work remotely Monday, but wanted to scrape the car as an excuse to spend some time in the snow. He's also looking for boots for his two older dogs in case they step on cold ground.
A polar vortex of super-cold air typically revolves around the North Pole. As the vortex breaks out and moves south, people in the United States, Europe, and Asia will experience intense cold.
According to research The Arctic is rapidly warming This is partly due to the increasing frequency of polar vortices and their expanding ice dominance.
Temperature plummets
Starting Monday, two-thirds of the eastern United States will experience dangerous, bone-chilling cold And the wind will get colder, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) below normal.
Northeastern states are likely to experience several days of cold weather after a mostly mild start to winter, said John Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Palmer said the cold front will hit the eastern United States as far south as Georgia, with parts of the East Coast likely to experience single-digit low temperatures.
class canceled
Widespread school closures are expected on Monday. Districts in Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas began announcing cancellations and delays Sunday afternoon. Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky canceled classes, extracurricular activities, and sports days for about 100,000 students.
Classes have also been canceled in Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency on Sunday and announced a state government shutdown on Monday.
“Keeping Marylanders safe is our top priority. Please stay off the roads during this storm. Prepare your home and family for power outages and charge your communication devices.” Moore said in a statement.
Car accidents increase rapidly when storms hit
At least 600 drivers were stranded in Missouri over the weekend, authorities said. Hundreds of car crashes have been reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by a patrol car.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who declared a state of emergency, said government buildings would be closed Monday.
“For people who don't need to be out on the streets, we're seeing too many shipwrecks, so I'm just saying, I'm asking you to stay indoors,” Beshear said.
The state Transportation Cabinet said in a social media post that road crews continued working through the night and left on Monday morning. But authorities warned that icy roads were a problem, especially in the central and northern regions where snow had piled up.
Virginia State Police responded to at least 230 crashes across the state between 4 p.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday, resulting in more than 20 injuries. Police said there was one fatal accident, but it was unclear whether it was caused by the storm. In Charleston, West Virginia, where several centimeters of snow had fallen by Sunday night, authorities urged drivers to stay home.
snow and ice forecast
In Indiana, sections of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and Route 41 were completely covered in snow, and Indiana State Police warned motorists to clear the roads as snow plows worked to remove the snow. I asked them not to come out.
“It's snowing so hard that snow plows come by, but within 30 minutes the roads are completely covered again,” said Sgt. Todd Lingle said.
The National Weather Service reported 14.5 inches (36.8 centimeters) of rain in Topeka, Kansas, around 8 p.m. Sunday.
Kansas City International Airport received a record 11 inches (28 centimeters) of snow on Sunday, breaking the 1962 snow record of 10.1 inches (26 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service in Kansas City, Missouri. It broke. Louisville, Kentucky, recorded 7.7 inches (19.5 centimeters) of snow on Sunday, breaking the previous record of 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) set in 1910.
Significant transportation delays are expected to continue into Monday as the storm moves into the mid-Atlantic region and is expected to bring another 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center warned. . Dangerously cold weather is expected to continue, with overnight lows dropping into single digits across the Central Plains, Mississippi and the Ohio Valley through midweek. In the mid-Atlantic region, lows are expected to fall into the teens, with daytime highs near freezing.
Deep freezes were expected south of Florida. Strong winds toppled trees around the Deep South on Sunday.
Air and train travel is also a big deal.
The storm wreaked havoc on the nation's passenger rail service, with more than 20 cancellations Sunday, more than 40 planned for Monday, and two already scheduled for Tuesday.
“If local governments are telling people not to travel, we try to run our service at full capacity when people are being told to stay home,” Amtrak spokesman Mark Magliari said in a statement. That's counterintuitive,” he said.
More than 1,400 flights were canceled and another 740 were delayed across the country Monday morning, according to tracking platform FlightAware. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reported that about 46% of incoming flights and 59% of departing flights were cancelled.
