Blizzard Clogs Traffic in N.Y. State; Ice Glazes South in Unusual Storm

Snow squalls whipped by icy winds off Lake Ontario dumped a foot of snow on parts of northern New York state Monday, producing whiteouts and drifts that brought traffic to a standstill along a major interstate route to Canada.

An unusual storm hit the South, icing over highways and bridges from Mississippi into the western mountains of North Carolina.

The gusty winds that blew from the warmer waters of Lake Ontario left more than a foot of snow at Lowville, midway between Syracuse and the Canadian border, where sheriff’s deputies said the ground had been green a day earlier.

Traffic was at a standstill from Sandy Creek to Adams, N.Y., along a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 81, a major route into Canada.

“The road’s not closed, but between Sandy Creek and Adams there are quite a few cars in the median,” state police dispatcher Yvonne Petrie said.

“Sometimes it’s so bad out there we call it ‘vertigo driving.’ We’ve had about a foot (of snow) and expect maybe another. So far we’ve had no serious accidents,” Petrie said.

Earlier Monday, a winter storm dumped snow and freezing rain on the South. The Mississippi Highway Patrol at Batesville, 30 miles south of Memphis, Tenn., said 1 1/2 inches of snow fell during the night, icing over bridges and highway overpasses.

A mixture of sleet and snow fell at Scottsboro, Ala., and sleet was reported at Ft. Payne, Ala., the weather service said.

The National Weather Service said from 1 to 3 inches of snow fell by dawn Monday over a wide area stretching from central Arkansas into southern West Virginia.

Forecasters said warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico was riding on top of cool air near the surface and producing the unusual weather.

The storm followed an unseasonably warm spell that apparently even tricked some fruits and flowers into believing spring had arrived along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.