US Snow Storm Heads East After Hitting Midwest

[Summer Sun]

A severe US snow storm is threatening more devastation as it heads east after pounding the Midwest, killing six people. Up to 18 inches of snow is forecast inland on Thursday, from western New York to Maine, before tapering off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast. It follows snowy gusts of 30mph and an outbreak of 34 tornadoes on Tuesday in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – causing travel chaos and power cuts. More than 1,600 flights were cancelled or delayed on Wednesday while scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts. The storms left more than 100,000 in the region without power.

The major storm system, which spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day and an historic amount of snow in Arkansas, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and moved into the Northeast. By Wednesday night, The National Weather Service said spotters had reported up to a foot of snow in some Pennsylvania counties. And a mix of snow, sleet and rain accompanied by high winds had arrived in western Massachusetts. "The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex," said John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

Two passengers in a car on a slippery Arkansas road died when the vehicle crossed the centre line and struck a sport utility vehicle. In Oklahoma, a 76-year-old woman died when a truck crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the car she was in. A 28-year-old woman was killed in another crash. The storm's winds were also blamed for toppling a tree onto a truck in Texas, killing the driver, and a tree onto a house in Louisiana, killing a man. Cameras captured the approach of the large funnel cloud in Mobile, Alabama, the biggest city hit by numerous twisters. A large section of the roof on the city's Trinity Episcopal Church was missing, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church.

http://news.sky.com/story/1030518/us-snow-storm-heads-east-after-hitting-midwest

[Jayces]

Maybe it will head East all the way to us ;-)

[Dorsetbred]

Maybe it will head East all the way to us ;-)

Now THAT'S wishful thinking for you...