From D.C. north to Maine, storms' snow and ice to bedevil into Tuesday
Waves of winter storms, which began at the end of last week, are expected to last into Tuesday for areas north of Virginia, forecasters say. The weather has interrupted air and auto travel, plus Senate proceedings.
A drop of water falls from an icy tree branch in Cockeysville, Md., Dec. 9, 2013. The storm that coated parts of Texas in ice struck with unexpected force Sunday on the East Coast, blanketing some spots in a foot of snow, grinding highways to a halt, causing power outages, and, on Monday, closing schools or delaying start times.
Patrick Semansky/ AP Photo
A swath of winter storms that had spread across the East Coast over the weekend, interrupting traffic, felling power lines, and depositing sheets of snow, is likely to last into Tuesday, according to National Weather Service forecasts.
Late Monday afternoon, winter weather advisories were in place in northern Virginia along the West Virginia border, as well as in the far Northeast states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and parts of Massachusetts. The NWS is forecasting between one to five inches of snow in these areas by Tuesday.
“I don’t think it’s going to warm up anytime soon,” Bruce Sullivan, an NWS meteorologist, told Reuters.
Monday's storm casualties now include a Senate session to vote on a judicial nomination. Citing inclement weather, Senate majority leader Harry Reid postponed a scheduled vote on the previously filibustered nomination of Patricia Milllett to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Mr. Reid moved the nomination vote from Monday evening to Tuesday morning.
Storms over the weekend along the East Coast also caused interruptions at main airline routes on Monday. Airlines canceled more than 1,600 flights nationwide, according to tracking website Flightaware.com, with "excessive delays" reported at Boston's Logan International Airport, Chicago's O'Hare International, and Philadelphia International Airport, among others.
The storm brought the season’s first measurable snow to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore – a bit earlier than usual for those cities. The average date of the first measurable snow ranges from Dec. 14 in Baltimore to Dec. 18 in Philadelphia.
AAA Mid-Atlantic, the auto group, said it pulled 109 vehicles out of snow and ice in Pennsylvania on Sunday, compared with three the week before, Reuters reported.
Over the weekend, northern Maryland received seven to 10 inches of snow, central and eastern Pennsylvania got four to 10 inches, and parts of New York received up to 10 inches through Monday morning, according to the NWS.
Nationally, FlightStats.com counted more than 6,100 flights as canceled since Saturday, the Washington Post reported. More than 1,200 of the canceled flights were from Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport.
A winter storm hit northern Texas and some southern regions of the East Coast on Sunday with unexpected force, the Post reported. As of Monday, nearly 22,000 homes and businesses remained without power, The Associated Press reported.
The West Coast was not spared from the weekend’s cold either, and a storm produced snow in Washington, California, Nevada, and the "four corner" states. That storm later brought light ice to parts of the south-central United States, according to The Weather Channel.
The lowest temperature recorded during this West Coast storm was 42 degrees below zero F. in Jordan, Mont., on Saturday.