Winter-Weary Midwest Is Hit by New Storm

A snowstorm that cut visibility to one block raced across the winter-weary Midwest on Friday, dumping another six inches of snow in some areas.

Midway Airport in Chicago was shut down, and traffic was snarled at O’Hare International Airport, where officials put a hold on arriving flights and cancelled nearly half of all departures because of near-whiteout conditions.

The weather further taxed dwindling salt supplies and snow-removal budgets in communities that are still digging out from foot-deep snow that fell across the region earlier in the week.

In Chicago, where more than 22 inches of snow has fallen so far during the month, a woman was killed Thursday when she was run over by a snowplow that had been clearing a supermarket parking lot.

In Milwaukee, where the normal winter snowfall is 47 inches, nearly 70 inches had fallen by Friday, with more snow coming down. In February alone, the city has received more than 33 inches of snow.

Forecasters said the storm was moving east and would likely spread snow across parts of Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and on into Pennsylvania, Maryland, southern New York and parts of New England by this morning.

Thunderstorms were causing bursts of intense snow within the storm, weather officials said.

Peter Leavitt, a meteorologist with Weather Services Corp., said temperatures “much below normal are likely in the Midwest and East for the next five to seven days” in the wake of the latest storm.