A cross-country winter storm poured snow on sections of the eastern United States on Wednesday, delaying traffic and triggering extensive closures as a blast of Arctic air swept into the South, dropping temperatures to perilous lows from the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast.
The National Weather Service said moderate snowfall was falling in North Carolina and the southern Mid-Atlantic on Wednesday afternoon and was anticipated to continue until Thursday morning. AccuWeather predicted that as the storm moved east, it would dump 6 to 12 inches of snow on Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware by Thursday morning. Officials warned that heavy snow might stop highways and ground planes.
The storm dropped several inches of snow on areas such as Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, which had been devastated by a devastating deluge the previous weekend. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned folks to keep off the roads and suggested that those without power find somewhere to stay while temperatures were below freezing. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced states of emergency on Tuesday in anticipation of the snowfall. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he would have issued a similar proclamation if the state wasn’t already in an emergency due to flooding.
Kentucky deals with significant snow and flooding:
At a press conference Wednesday morning, Beshear reported that sections of western Kentucky had gotten eight inches of snow by 11:30 a.m. He said central and eastern Kentucky areas had 2 to 4 inches of snow, and more was predicted Wednesday night. Beshear urged citizens to stay in a warm house or shelter, warning that ice conditions had made driving dangerous. He advised anyone who needed to get on the road to avoid obstacles. He said many water rescues happened Tuesday after individuals disobeyed road restrictions and became stuck in floodwaters during the weekend storms. Furthermore, extreme temperatures constituted a significant concern.Â
Florida will finally experience cold on Thursday:
According to the National Weather Service, a cold front is moving across Florida on Wednesday afternoon, bringing showers and thunderstorms. “More importantly, Florida will join the millions of people experiencing this Arctic air outbreak,” said weather service meteorologist Hayden Wilder in an online prediction. He added that high temperatures will fall from the 70s and 80s to the 50s and 60s, with lows in the 30s as far south as Orlando by late this week.
