A major winter storm expected to bring strong winds and heavy snow to more than a dozen states arrived in the Great Plains on Saturday, forcing officials to close the Kansas City Airport in Missouri and an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in Kansas.
Kansas City International Airport was closed for about two hours Saturday while crews cleared the runway, but flights resumed in the evening, Mayor Quinton Lucas said on social media.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of emergency in the state on Saturday afternoon as officials braced for further worsening of the storm.
The Kansas City area was under a blizzard warning until 3 a.m. Sunday, with the area expected to be blanketed with 9 to 14 inches of snow and face wind gusts of up to 40 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
“Travel may be very difficult or even impossible,” the service said in an update.
The airport closure delayed the Kansas City Chiefs’ flight to Denver for about three hours, but the team took off at 5:30 p.m. local time, Chiefs spokesman Brad Gee said. The Chiefs were scheduled to play the Broncos on Sunday afternoon.
The storm also wreaked havoc on the state’s highways.
In video captured near an overturned semitrailer on Interstate 135 in Kansas and posted on social media, Trooper Ben Gardner of the Kansas Highway Patrol said the highway was “very, very dangerous. Smooth” and “things are not getting any better”.
“Get off the road,” he said. “Don’t get involved because it’s not good and it could lead to very bad things happening. Stay home.
An 18-mile stretch of icy Interstate 70 was closed around 3 p.m. due to crashes and crashes, said Kim Stich, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Transportation. Another three-mile stretch of the highway was closed earlier in the day but has since reopened.
The storm is expected to intensify in Kansas before moving east along Interstate 70, bringing heavy snow and freezing temperatures to a swath of the Midwest before reaching the mid-Atlantic.
Several states in the storm’s path, including Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia, declared states of emergency in anticipation of the storm’s approach. Cities such as Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis treated roadways and prepared warming centers ahead of the storm.
Early Saturday, some places could see the heaviest snowfall in a decade or more as widespread winter storm warnings were in effect.
The weather service has issued a number of winter watches, advisories and warnings for areas from eastern Colorado to New Jersey.
“This is going to be a very high-impact storm that affects a sizable area of the country,” said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
As the storm continues, arctic air is expected to settle in its wake as the coldest temperatures of the season are expected to persist for several days.
The governors of Missouri and Indiana put their respective National Guard troops on standby, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and urged people to avoid traveling on Sunday.
In Kansas, plow trucks were out of service through Saturday night, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
The forecast center said some of the most extreme conditions could occur north of and along the Interstate 70 corridor through St. Louis and Indianapolis.
“The heaviest snowfall will be concentrated south of Chicago,” said Rich Bunn, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Moderate lake effect snow could also hit the upper Great Lakes and Lake Erie Sunday morning, forecasters said.
The forecast center also warned that “freezing conditions are possible” in the south-central region this weekend. Sleet and freezing rain could wreak havoc across eastern Kansas and the Ozarks and extend east into Tennessee and the lower Ohio Valley.
“Rainwater freezes on contact and turns to glass – that’s what sticks to trees, power lines, roads, cars, windows, everything,” Mr Benn said.
There is also a risk of ice in the southern Appalachians Sunday and Sunday night.
Severe thunderstorms with lightning, gusty winds, hail and tornadoes are possible in parts of the lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday, with a higher risk of Category 2 out of five.
From Sunday into Monday, the storm is expected to move across the Appalachian Mountains and into the mid-Atlantic region, including Washington, D.C., and western Maryland, northern Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Snow is expected to fall across the mid-Atlantic by dawn Monday and continue throughout the day.
The storm comes as the country prepares to experience what the Bureau of Meteorology calls a “severe Arctic epidemic”.
Temperatures are expected to drop below average east of the Rockies and as far south as the Gulf Coast and Florida, with wintry conditions continuing into mid-January.
Gui Isabella Contributed reporting.
