Snow Falls in Southwest; Storm Threatens Northeast

As much as seven inches of snow buried parts of eastern New Mexico and western Texas on Thursday, while another storm that formed in the Northeast threatened to dump up to two feet of snow in higher elevations of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

A fourth straight day of dense fog, which has snarled airport traffic since Monday in Utah and at several other sites around the nation, lightened Thursday but still hampered air traffic in Phoenix.

Fog lingered Thursday in parts of Utah and Texas, across the central Gulf Coast states into Georgia and around the Great Lakes also.

Snow fell Thursday morning from the southern Rockies to northwest Texas, and rain doused the rest of Texas and parts of southern New Mexico, southern Oklahoma and Louisiana. A winter storm warning was issued for much of the eastern section of the southern Plains.

Slick Conditions Predicted

“Hazardous driving conditions will persist for the higher elevations of far west Texas, the Panhandle and for the south Plains today,” the National Weather Service said. “Water will re-freeze over the Panhandle and south Plains tonight and cause very slick conditions through Friday morning.”

Snowfall amounts included six inches at Springer, N. M., five inches at Plainview and Tulia, Tex., four inches at Levelland and Crosbyton, Tex., and three inches at Lubbock, Tex.

The Muleshoe Wildlife Refuge in west Texas reported snow seven inches deep.

A separate storm brewing in the Northeast threatened to dump up to eight inches of snow on parts of New York, Vermont, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and up to two feet of snow in the higher elevations of the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.

“We could surely use it,” said Ron Schmalzle, manager of Masthope Mountain ski area in Lackawaxen, Pa., which plans to open for the season Saturday. “If it keeps up, we’ll be just fine.”

Winter storm warnings were posted over inland Massachusetts and the northwest hills of Connecticut. About two inches of snow fell Thursday morning in higher elevations of Berkshire County in Massachusetts.