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Chicago, Feb. 3 (US): A major winter storm on its way to millions of Americans brought a mix of rain, sleet and snow to the central United States as airlines canceled thousands of flights, and officials urged residents to stay off roads and schools. Closed campus.
The blast of cold weather, which began arriving Tuesday evening and continued Wednesday, has put long swathes of states from New Mexico and Colorado to Maine under warnings and hours of winter storms. The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday morning that Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan experienced freezing rain, sleet and snow.
By midday Wednesday, some places were already reporting snow totals above or close to 1 foot, including 14.4 inches (36.6 cm) in Lewistown, central Illinois, and 11.5 inches (29.2 cm) in northeastern Missouri’s Hannibal.
“It’s still snowing across these areas,” said Andrew Orison, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland.
Orison said it appears likely that central Illinois and northern Indiana will receive the most snowfall, with projected totals ranging from 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) by the end of Thursday.
Snowfall in Missouri begins in the early afternoon, but 8 inches to a foot (20 to 30 cm) of snow may end up. Snow may fall in parts of Michigan about a foot by Thursday.
In Chicago, Elisha Waldman and his sons welcomed the chance to hit a sledding hill Wednesday morning, even as the snow continued to fall.
“Cold and damp and cool, and cold and damp is part of the fun with men, and we go inside and get hot cocoa and warm up,” Waldman said.
In the western suburbs of Detroit, Tony Healy has also found an advantage for the weather. He owns a landscaping and irrigation company that offers snow removal and salting services, but the first winter weeks offered few opportunities for business.
“This is here, we’re looking for two or three good business days,” Hayley said after clearing snow from several businesses in Canton.
But for those on the roads, heavy snowfall has caused dangerous conditions.
“We get a lot of snow here in northwest Indiana, and it’s the wet and icy snow that causes treacherous driving conditions to say the least,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Glenn Fifield told WFLD-TV.
In central Missouri, officials closed part of Interstate 70 at midday after a road crash disrupted the road.
Areas south of the heavy snow were expected to see freezing rain, with the heaviest ice expected along the lower Ohio Valley region from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee.
“If everything continues as it is now, this is the real deal,” said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who ordered state government offices to close Thursday. “It’s dangerous. People need to be prepared.”
The devastating storm moved across the central United States on Groundhog Day, the same day the famous groundhog Boxstowne Phil predicted another six weeks of winter. The storm came on the heels of a blizzard last weekend that caused a snowstorm to hit many parts of the East Coast.
The storm’s path stretched as far south as Texas, nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze that caused the state’s power grid to collapse in one of the worst blackouts in US history. The forecast didn’t require the same prolonged, freezing temperatures as the February 2021 storm, and the National Weather Service said the system, overall, wouldn’t be bad this time around for Texas.
There were no widespread blackouts reported early Wednesday afternoon in Texas or anywhere else.
Snowfall totaled 22 inches (56 cm) in Colorado Springs and up to 10 inches (25 cm) in the Denver area, with more expected, prompting universities, state government offices and the legislature to close.
Flight tracking service FlightAware.com showed that airlines canceled nearly 8,000 flights in the US that were scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday. Airports in St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City and Detroit have canceled more flights than usual. Nearly 700 flights were canceled Thursday alone at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and more than 300 were canceled at nearby Dallas Love Field.
In an effort to stay ahead of the weather, Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday that it will suspend all of its flight operations on Wednesday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport and on Thursday at Dallas Love Field Center.
The National Weather Service meteorologists in Little Rock put their own spin on the Groundhog Day tradition with a photo of their office cat, Tarmac, and the caption: “Shadow is everywhere! A winter storm is happening!”
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