Snow, Ice Move East, Cold Air Chills Plains

A storm that spread snow and ice from the Southwest to the Plains rolled into the Northeast today with up to a foot of snow, and a new wave of cold air rolled across the Rockies and Plains with record lows as far south as the Texas Panhandle.

“The groundhog was wrong. He said spring was right around the corner, but he must have had a big building to look around,” said wrecker service operator Bill Bland in Morgantown, W.Va.

A foot of wet snow had fallen by mid-morning at Huntington, W.Va. Up to 10 inches fell around south-central Pennsylvania, with 1 to 2 inches around Baltimore and Washington, and more than an inch of snow slowed rush hour traffic in New York City and its suburbs.

Philadelphia’s airport, which normally handles about 1,000 flights a day, was down to one runway, for landings only.

Winter storm warnings for 4 to 12 inches of snow were issued for much of West Virginia, south-central Ohio, Pennsylvania’s lower Susquehanna Valley, western Maryland and southern New Jersey.

Many schools closed or opened late today in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and northern Delaware.

Behind the storm, travelers’ advisories warned of slippery roads from leftover snow and ice all the way back to the Texas Panhandle, and an inch of ice accumulated late Monday in parts of northern Alabama, forcing school closings today.

Very cold air washed over the eastern Rockies and the Plains with morning lows around 15 to 25 degrees below zero common today from eastern Montana and Wyoming across the Dakotas into Minnesota.

The cold spread well to the south, and Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle tied its record low for today’s date of 12 below zero, set in 1899. Other records included 13 below zero at Casper, Wyo.; 19 below at Sheridan, Wyo.; 2 below at South Bend, Ind., and 10 above at Wichita Falls, Tex.