Winter storm blasts South, Northeast with snow and wind
(NewsNation) — A late winter storm blasted the U.S. Northeast and brought strong winds, heavy snow and record-breaking cold to the Deep South.
By Saturday afternoon, 10 inches of snow or more had been reported in parts of New York and northern Pennsylvania and as much as six inches in eastern Pennsylvania.
In the Deep South, meteorologists say temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees below normal and will persist for the first half of the week.
Forecasters said the fast-moving storm late Friday and into Saturday also left heavy snowfalls across a big stretch of the eastern U.S. Southern states including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. An intensifying low pressure accompanied the storm, fueling high winds up to 45 mph and creating plunging temperatures that made travel hazardous.
A 73 vehicle pile-up on a central Pennsylvania highway resulted in multiple injuries, but none reported were life-threatening. Slick roads were also blamed for crashes as rain turned to snow and began to pile up in parts of Maine, northern New Hampshire and Vermont.
The system also brought between two to three inches of snow to parts of northern Mississippi and portions of the Mississippi Delta. In Tennessee, several inches of snow fell, delaying by at least a day the season opening of Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.
A number of St. Patrick’s Day parades were from Tennessee to New York and Pennsylvania. The parade scheduled for Sunday in the city of Philadelphia was still scheduled to go on.
Meteorologists predict that several inches of snow is possible in northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northern Michigan late Sunday night into Monday.
In the Pacific Northwest, a potent frontal system is moving inland bringing heavy rain and wind. High winds are also expected from eastern New Mexico across the Texas Panhandle and into western Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service reports a swath of light-to-moderate snow is possible across the Midwest on Monday.