A severe winter storm system that created heavy snow and high winds from the Midwest heading to the Northeast is disrupting holiday travel to and from Atlanta.
Many metro Atlantans wanting to come home after the Christmas holiday, and guests here who need to head out, faced harsh driving weather and delays or cancellations on flights.
By Wednesday night, there were numerous delays and cancellations of flights at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as the storm moved into the Northeast. Flights in and out of the Midwest and other locations were also delayed because of the situation at LaGuardia, Philadelphia, JFK, Newark and Hartford airports. Winds were also causing problems for flights.
Meanwhile, the large, powerful storms created lots of worry for those driving through the Midwest, where a blizzard stranded scores of motorists on icy roads and snowy gusts of 30 mph blanketed roads, at times causing whiteout conditions.
“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.
As the storm system headed to the Northeast, forecasts called for 12 to 18 inches of snow from western New York into Maine. The storm left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida would see severe thunderstorms.
Here at home, temperatures, which began in the 50s Wednesday, dropped significantly as brisk winds swept into the area.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz warned to “expect snow flurries.”
People in metro Atlanta’s northwest suburbs, as far out as Canton and as close as Kennesaw, reported seeing flurries and sleet.
For Thursday, temperatures are expected to drop below the freezing mark amid sunny skies, said Channel 2 Action News meteorologist David Chandley.
The weather played a role in numerous metro Atlanta crashes during the holiday weekend, and 17 people were killed on the roads. The dense fog that blanketed metro Atlanta on Christmas Eve contributed to a fatal wreck in Cobb County, and the weather was listed as a factor in a fatal single-vehicle wreck in Gwinnett County on Christmas afternoon.
This year’s Christmas weekend death toll is the highest since 2008, the last year that there was a 102-hour counting period.
The sprawling winter storm system spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day and pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley. Snow was blamed for scores of vehicle accidents as far east as Maryland, and about two dozen counties in Indiana and Ohio issued snow emergency travel alerts.
More than 1,200 flights were canceled across the country by midday Wednesday, according to FlightAware.com. Delays of more than an hour were reported Wednesday at the three New York City-area airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Some 40 vehicles got bogged down trying to make it up a slick hill in central Indiana, and four state snowplows slid off roads as snow fell at the rate of 3 inches an hour in some places. Deaths from wind-toppled trees were reported in Texas and Louisiana.
Jennifer Miller, 58, was taking a bus Wednesday from Cincinnati to visit family in Columbus.
“I wish this had come yesterday and was gone today,” she said, struggling with a rolling suitcase and three smaller bags on a slushy sidewalk near the station. “I’m glad I don’t have to drive in this.”
Traffic crawled at 25 mph on I-81 in Maryland, where authorities reported scores of accidents.
“We’re going to try to go down South and get below” the storm, said Richard Power, traveling from home in Levittown, N.Y., to Kentucky with his wife, two children and their beagle, Lucky. He said they were well on their way until they hit snow in Pennsylvania, then 15-mph traffic on I-81 at Hagerstown, Md. “We’re going to go as far as we can go. … If it doesn’t get better, we’re going to just get a hotel.”
In Arkansas, some of the nearly 200,000 people who lost power could be without it for as long as a week because of snapped poles and wires after ice and 10 inches of snow coated power lines, said the state’s largest utility, Entergy Arkansas.
Other states also had scattered outages. Duke Energy said it had nearly 300 outages in Indiana, with few left in Ohio by early afternoon after scores were reported in the morning.
As the storm moved east, New England state highway departments were treating roads and getting ready to mobilize with snowfall forecasts of a foot or more.
The sunny skies will continue Friday in metro Atlanta, along with highs in the mid-50s and lows in the low 30s.
There’s a 60 percent chance of rain on Saturday, when highs will be in the low 50s and lows in the low 40s.
Sunday should again be sunny and cooler, with highs in the upper 40s and lows around the freezing mark.
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