A nasty winter storm that left nearly a foot of snow on the ground in northwest Oklahoma barreled east Wednesday, threatening dangerous icing from northwest Georgia to Pennsylvania.
Winter storm and freezing rain warnings were posted across the South from the Atlanta area to North Carolina and snow warnings were in effect in the Mid-Atlantic states. The first heavy snow of the season blanketed the Oklahoma Panhandle Tuesday with ice and more than 10 inches of snow causing scores of fender-bender accidents and spinouts during the rush-hour commute.
Ice-encrusted tree limbs and power lines snapped leaving more than 37,000 homes and businesses without electric power in central Oklahoma on Tuesday night.
Some motorists chose to wait out the storm at motels while residents reached for shovels, ice scrappers and melting salt to deal with slippery streets and sidewalks.
A combination of ice, snow and freezing rain closed dozens of schools from Kentucky to Arkansas.
Police in Cleveland blamed the winter-like blast for a flurry of accidents, including a traffic fatal Tuesday on a dry stretch of Interstate 71 when a speeding car struck a bridge abutment and rolled across three highway lanes.
Ice forced transportation officials to close a partially elevated section of eastbound Interstate 90 for more than 2 1/2 hours. Accumulations of up to 3 inches were possible in south-central Ohio by Thursday.
Cold gripped the Midwest, where fall temperatures have been averaging 10 to 20 degrees below normal. It was a frigid 3 degrees at Detroit Metro Airport at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, tying a record set in 1871, and 14 degrees at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
The mix of freezing rain, snow and sleet was expected to spread across southeastern Kansas, southern Illinois, southern Missouri and Kentucky.
The Northeast shivered in an unseasonable chill for a second day and snow warnings were posted for Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia.
Thunderstorms were forecast along the central Gulf Coast including New Orleans.
