Snow Blitzes Midwest, Causing Power Outages

Trees in autumnal technicolor of crimson and gold turned suddenly white Thursday when a storm blitzed the Midwest with up to 6 inches of snow, causing power outages to more than 200,000 customers in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, officials said.

It was the earliest snowfall on record for many cities, including Cincinnati and Dayton in Ohio, Indianapolis and St. Louis.

Snow also fell in parts of Kentucky, where a firefighter was electrocuted by power lines downed by the snow.

In Covington, Ohio, a man was killed when his car veered into the opposite lane of a snow-slickened highway and struck a pickup truck near Dayton, said Patty Carey of the Ohio Highway Patrol. The area had received 4 inches of snow.

“I can’t believe this,” said Jan Fredbeck of Franklin, Ind., where 6 inches of snow fell. “We’ve got Halloween decorations up inside and they look so stupid now.”

John Robinson, a National Weather Service forecaster, said records dating back to about 1870 show no snowfall in Cincinnati as early as Oct. 19. It also was the earliest snowfall record for Dayton.

In Kentucky, up to 4 inches of snow fell, knocking out power to up to 100,000 customers stretched from Louisville to the state’s north-central and northeastern sections.

Indianapolis’ snowfall of up to 6 inches was the deepest on record since the weather service began keeping records in 1885, said meteorologist John Curran of the weather service. It also broke a record for the earliest measurable snow, set on Oct. 20, 1916.

Snow flurries in the eastern half of Missouri gave St. Louis its earliest snowfall on record. Like Indianapolis, it broke a record, set Oct. 20, 1916.