Winter storms batter eastern half of U.S.; more coming for Texas, southern states

The plunging polar vortex brought subfreezing temperatures Tuesday to some of the southernmost points of the U.S., threatening to dump snow on parts of Texas and Oklahoma in the coming days and contributing to a power outage in Virginia’s capital that made the water unsafe to drink.

The arctic blast that descended on much of the U.S. east of the Rockies over the weekend has caused hundreds of car accidents, thousands of flight cancellations and delays, and forced school closures in some states. A cold weather advisory was issued Tuesday for the Gulf Coast. And the low temperature in El Paso on Texas’ border with Mexico, was 31 degrees, with an expected wind chill ranging from 0 to 15 degrees early Wednesday.

Road crews in Kansas City, which has received about 11 inches of snow in recent days, have struggled to keep up with clearing the area’s streets and highways.

As points north and east dug their way out of snow and ice on Tuesday, communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas were preparing for their own helping. A low-pressure system was expected to form as soon as Wednesday near South Texas, which could bring several inches of snow to the Dallas area and the lower Mississippi Valley, the weather service said.

“As we go through the next few days, we’re still going to be seeing those colder-than-normal temperatures,” said Peter Mullinax, a weather service meteorologist based in College Park, Maryland. “We’re going to see areas of snow and ice start to take shape across northern Texas, southern Oklahoma as we get into Thursday morning.”

Some of it could be “pretty disruptive,” he said.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. 

The eastern two-thirds of the U.S. were dealt another day of colder-than-usual temperatures. And the snow and ice in the central Plains through the Ohio Valley into the Atlantic is likely to linger for a few days, Mullinax said, which will mean opportunities for constant refreezing and black ice. That could create treacherous road conditions.

A Kentucky truck stop was jammed Monday with big rigs forced off an icy and snow-covered Interstate 75 just outside Cincinnati. Michael Taylor, a long-haul driver from Los Angeles carrying a load of rugs to Georgia, said he saw numerous cars and trucks stuck in ditches and was dealing with icy windshield wipers before he pulled off the interstate.

“It was too dangerous. I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else,” he said.

Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Virginia State Police responded to at least 430 crashes on Sunday and Monday, including one that was fatal. Police said other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas had two deadly crashes over the weekend.

Many were in the dark as temperatures plunged. About 200,000 customers were without power Tuesday across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Virginia’s capital city, a weather-related power outage caused a temporary malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday. Richmond officials asked those in the city of more than 200,000 people to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes without boiling the water first. The city also asked people to conserve their water, such as by taking shorter showers.


(AP Photo)