A snowstorm blew into the mid-Atlantic states on Tuesday, causing dozens of accidents on icy roads, prompting school closures and stoking worries about possible power outages.
The heaviest snowfall — up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) — was expected in parts of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) in some higher elevations of West Virginia and the Roanoke Valley of southwestern Virginia, the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Weather Service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups.
“Did you think winter was over? Think again!†the weather service’s office in Blacksburg, Virginia, said on X. Snow mixed and sleet blew into western Virginia and North Carolina early Tuesday, with the system expected to give way to freezing rain in the afternoon, the weather said.
Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it had requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems.
About 65 Virginia ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Guard soldiers were at facilities along the Interstate 95 and state Route 29 corridors and in southwest Virginia to support the storm response, guard officials said. Another 20 soldiers and members of the Virginia Defense Force were in support roles.
Troops with heavy-duty trucks were organized in chain-saw teams to help clear roads and power line routes. Black Hawk helicopters with rescue hoist capabilities were also on standby.
Winter storm warnings extended Tuesday from Kentucky to southern New Jersey. The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a separate storm system was expected to dump heavy snow on an area stretching from Kansas to the Great Lakes starting Tuesday night, the weather service said.
Treacherous travel
In Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday, state police reported dozens of accidents, including four injuries. The Department of Transportation advised the public to stay off the roads.
With snow in the forecast for the Washington, D.C., area, the Office of Personnel Management recommended that federal workers leave their offices early on Tuesday afternoon.
In West Virginia, Smith’s Towing and Truck Repair responded to 10 calls from drivers whose vehicles got stuck in the snow and ice on Interstate 64 near the Virginia border, dispatcher Kelly Pickles said. Four of the vehicles were tractor trailers.
“Basically, they just get sucked over into the median or they go off of the interstate just a little bit on the right hand side,†she said. “And they just don’t have enough power in their vehicles to get back onto the road due to the icy conditions."
The company is based in mountainous Greenbrier County, which could get as much as 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow. During a snowstorm in early January, the company towed about three to four vehicles per hour back onto the roads, Pickles said.
‘A wonderland’
Paige Williams, who owns Downtown Books in Lexington, Virginia, described a kind of “fluffy snow that sticks to things†that was coming down heavily and limiting visibility at her home outside the city in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“It makes it just like a wonderland,†Williams said. “It’s beautiful out here. It’s sticking to the evergreens and to some of the rock walls. And it’s really just gorgeous.â€
Williams, 58, closed her store, as Lexington is expected to get as much as 9 inches of snow. She hopes to reopen Wednesday, noting that Lexington and surrounding Rockbridge County are dependable when it comes to clearing the roads.
But with temperatures on either side of freezing Tuesday night and Wednesday, the rain that’s supposed to follow could make the roads better or worse.
“It’s just going to depend on where those temperatures go,†Williams said. “Rain can clear things off. And rain can also freeze. And then you have a lot of skating rinks instead of roads.â€
Frigid temperatures
An Arctic air mass stretched Tuesday from Portland, Oregon, to the Great Lakes.
In Detroit, where temperatures dropped into the lower teens (about minus 11 Celsius), two children under age 10 to the cold after they were discovered with other family members Monday in a van in a casino parking garage, police said. Their family may have been living in the van.
The temperature bottomed out Tuesday morning at minus 31 degrees (minus 35 degrees Celsius) in Butte, Montana, where over the past two winters at least five people died due to cold exposure, said Brayton Erickson, executive director of the Butte Rescue Mission. Advocates for the homeless in the city of about 35,000 were out on the streets distributing sleeping bags, jackets, mittens and other cold weather gear to anyone who needed them, Erickson said. Overnight Monday into Tuesday, 36 people were jammed into the 16-bed rescue mission to escape the cold.
“When it gets this cold, we kind of pull out all the stops,†he said.
In North Dakota, all 12 beds at the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge were full, executive director Mike Zimmer said. The temperature in Minot dipped to minus 17 (minus 27 Celsius) early Tuesday.
“You go outside, that wind is like steak knives going into your body within the first couple seconds,†Zimmer said.
In Oregon’s Multnomah County, where a hypothermia death was confirmed earlier this month, officials declared a state of emergency Monday night ahead of temperatures that dipped just below freezing and opened three shelters with over 230 beds in the Portland area. Readings were expected to drop to as low as 5 degrees (minus 15 Celsius) on Tuesday night.
Atmospheric river
Forecasters are predicting an atmospheric river in California starting Thursday, according to Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist with the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center. It's expected to bring heavy rainfall along the coast and into the central valleys, and heavy snowfall in the Sierras through Saturday.
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Associated Press writers from across the U.S. contributed to this report.
