The first major winter storm of the new year swept into the US mid-Atlantic states on Monday, closing down federal offices and state schools in Washington after dumping a foot of snow in parts of the Ohio Valley and Central Plains.
About five inches (12.7cm) had fallen in the nation’s capital by 8am on Monday, according to the US National Weather Service, with up to eight inches in some surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia. The snow was forecast to continue throughout the day before the system pushed out to sea on Monday evening. Severe travel disruptions were expected across the storm’s path, and officials urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible. Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, declared states of emergency.
In the wake of the storm dangerously frigid Arctic air was filling the void, bringing freezing rain and icy conditions to a swath of the country stretching from Illinois to the Atlantic coast. The unusually cold temperatures are expected to linger for the rest of the week.
The Central Plains, where the storm dumped heavy snow over the weekend, were already in a deep freeze. Parts of Kansas experienced bitter cold wind chills, with values from 5 to almost 25 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 15 to 32 degrees Celsius) overnight. The cold air will persist, with daytime highs only in the mid teens to lower 20s.
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The airport in Kansas City recorded 11 inches (28cm) of snowfall, the highest for any storm in more than 30 years, the National Weather Service said. The Missouri State Police said it had responded on Sunday to more than 1,000 stranded motorists and 356 crashes, including one fatality.
In Washington, while the storm did not keep the US Congress from meeting to certify Donald Trump’s election as president, federal offices were closed.
Hundreds of schools announced they would not open on Monday due to the storm, including state schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia.
The storm also left more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the central and southern US without power on Monday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.
As of 11am eastern time (4pm Irish time) more than 1,600 flights within, into and out of the United States had been cancelled, according to the FlightAware.com tracking service. Amtrak cancelled dozens of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor line between Boston and Washington.
The three airports serving the DC area – Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington International and Dulles – were all open, with crews working to clear the airfields of snow, but were seeing many flights delayed or cancelled.
In Britain fresh weather warnings were issued as wintry conditions caused travel disruption and school closures.
Yellow warnings for snow and ice came into force across large parts of the UK on Monday afternoon, and were to remain in place into Tuesday. Many commuters suffered travel disruption on Monday morning, with major roads closed and railway lines blocked.
Manchester Airport’s runways were closed early on Monday because of heavy snow but later reopened.
At 1pm the Environment Agency had 165 flood warnings, meaning flooding was expected, and 321 flood alerts, meaning flooding was possible, active across England. At the same time National Resources Wales had two flood warnings and 20 flood alerts in place. – Reuters/PA
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