ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A large swath of the United States was lashed by ice, snow and wind Monday as the polar vortex that turned south over the weekend kept much of the country still east of the Rockies in its icy grip, making many roads dangerous. forcing the closure of schools and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations.
The massive storm system disrupted parts of the country that usually escape the wrath of winter, felling trees in some Southern states, threatening to freeze Florida over and forcing residents of Dallas to dig deep into their forests. dress to find hats and gloves.
Washington, DC, received heavy snowfall as President-elect Donald Trump’s victory was certified. Taking advantage of a rare snowstorm in the nation’s capital, revelers engaged in a snowball fight in front of the Washington Monument while flags flew at half-staff in memory of former President Jimmy Carter.
In Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, Hugh Ross used his shovel Monday to break up patches of ice covering his driveway. Frozen rain fell on the snow that arrived Sunday, which he said “couldn’t have been worse.”
“You have to break up first,” Ross explained. “If you don’t do it, you’re wasting your time. I did some diapers yesterday so I had to make sure I wasn’t too out of shape today.
Ice and snow covered major highways in Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the National Guard was activated to help stranded motorists. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions brought wind gusts up to 45 mph. Warnings extended to New Jersey through Tuesday morning.
PHOTOS: Polar vortex keeps much of the US in its icy grip
At the famed Calumet Farm in central Kentucky, thoroughbreds were led to their stalls Sunday afternoon before freezing rain turned their pastures into a blanket of snow and ice.
“Ice is the worst,” Eddie Kane, the farm’s manager, said Monday. “I still haven’t kicked them out because it’s still a bit too dangerous. It’s like an ice rink in the fields.
The polar vortex of ultracold air generally orbits the North Pole, but it sometimes dips south toward the United States, Europe, and Asia. Studies show that rapid warming in the Arctic is partly responsible for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex expanding its grip.
Since Monday, the eastern two-thirds of the United States have faced bitter cold and wind chills, forecasters said, predicting temperatures ranging from 12 to 25 degrees below normal in many areas.
The Northeast is expected to see several cold days, said Jon Palmer, a weather service meteorologist based in Gray, Maine.
The cold is expected to extend up the East Coast into Georgia, with temperatures dropping to single digits in some coastal areas, Palmer said.
School closures were widespread, with districts in Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas canceling or delaying the start of classes on Monday. Among them were Jefferson County, Kentucky, public schools, which canceled classes and other school activities for their nearly 100,000 students.
Classes were also canceled in Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency on Sunday and announced that state government offices would also be closed on Monday.
At least 600 motorists were stranded in Missouri this weekend, authorities said. Hundreds of car crashes have been reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who declared a state of emergency, said government buildings would be closed Monday.
“We see way too many wrecks for people not to need to be on the roads,” Beshear said.
Kansas experienced two fatal accidents this weekend. Gov. Laura Kelly closed state offices in the Topeka area until Tuesday, as did many school districts.
Virginia State Police responded to at least 430 crashes Sunday and Monday. One man died and more than 20 people were injured. Police said other weather-related fatal crashes occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
As of midday Monday, Maryland State Police troopers had responded to at least 475 calls for service, including 123 reported crashes and 156 unattended vehicles since 1 a.m., Maryland State Police said on social media .
In Indiana, snow-covered stretches of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41 have authorities imploring people to stay home.
“It’s snowing so hard that the snowplows are coming by and in less than a half hour the roads are completely covered again,” said State Police Sgt. » said Todd Ringle.
Topeka, Kansas, reported 14.5 inches (nearly 37 centimeters) around 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the weather service.
Kansas City International Airport received 11 inches of snow Sunday, breaking the previous record for the day of 10.1 inches set in 1962, according to the Weather Service office in Kansas City, Missouri. In Kentucky, Louisville recorded 7.7 inches (nearly 20 centimeters) of snow on Sunday, breaking the previous record of 3 inches set in 1910.
The Mid-Atlantic region is expected to receive between 15 and 30 centimeters of additional snow Monday, the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center warned. Dangerously cold temperatures are expected to follow, with overnight lows falling into the single digits through midweek across the central Plains and Mississippi and Ohio valleys.
Many were in the dark as temperatures plummeted. More than 250,000 customers were without power early Monday in Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri, according to the electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.
In Virginia’s capital, a power outage caused a temporary malfunction of the water supply system, authorities announced Monday afternoon. Richmond officials have asked citizens in the city of more than 200,000 to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes without first boiling the water. The city also asked residents to conserve their water, for example by taking shorter showers.
City officials said they are working around the clock to get the system back online.
More than 2,500 flights were canceled and at least 6,500 more were delayed nationwide as of Monday morning, according to tracking platform FlightAware. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reported that about 58% of arrivals and 70% of departures were canceled.
A record 8 inches of snow fell at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Sunday, leading to dozens of flight cancellations that persisted into Monday. A few more inches of snow were expected Monday in the Cincinnati area, where car and truck crashes closed at least two major roads leading into downtown Monday morning.
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