Major winter storm brings more ‘treacherous’ ice, snow and frigid temperatures across US

© Getty A father and son shovel sleet from the sidewalk during a winter storm in Concord, New Hampshire on February 4, 2022. – The winter storm stretched from Texas to Maine, bringing snow, ice and sleet and causing slippery roads, car accidents and power outages across the US. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)Nearly 110,000 customers in Tennessee were without power as of Friday night, plus about 150,000 customers from Ohio through the Northeast, according to online tracker Poweroutage.us. More than 5,100 flights in the U.S. had been canceled as of 7:45 p.m. EST Friday after thousands were scrapped earlier this week, according to Flightaware.com.

Flights were disrupted at major hubs in the U.S. on Friday, including airports in New York City, Boston and Dallas.

In its wake, the storm is expected to bring frigid weekend temperatures, and the Weather Service had already issued wind chill and hard freeze advisories in Texas. “Take steps now to protect not only plumbing, but people and pets from the bitterly cold temperatures expected,” the Weather Service in Dallas said.

In Oklahoma, police were investigating the hit-and-run death of a 12-year-old boy who was sledding when he was hit by a vehicle.

The storm also spawned a deadly tornado in Alabama, where at least one person in Hale County was killed and three others injured.

Adam Douty, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said the snow, ice and even the tornado aren’t out of the ordinary for this time of year. While there was a large amount of icing in Tennessee and Arkansas, 8 to 12 inches of snow for much of the Midwest isn’t uncommon, Douty said.

“It’s a good snow storm … but it’s nothing unusual,” he said.

Ice, snow to blanket New England; wintry mix affects I-95 commute

After the storm dropped heavy snow around the region Thursday, several more inches of snow were expected Friday evening in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, bringing totals up to 18 inches in some areas.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay home if possible to avoid ice-coated roadways and the threat of falling tree limbs in the Hudson Valley and Capital regions.

“We’re not out of the danger zone yet,” Hochul said. “The weather is wildly unpredictable.”

In a roughly 24-hour span, 7.1 inches of snow fell at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport as of 1 a.m. Friday. A spotter reported 7.6 inches of snow in Fairport, New York, as of 3 a.m., and 10.5 inches of snow near Rochester.

Burlington, Vermont, saw 6.5 inches of snow Thursday, AccuWeather reported. An additional 1 to 4 inches in the area was forecast Friday, the local Weather Service office said.

Meanwhile, an icy wintry mix could bring dangerous travel conditions to the mid-Atlantic and around the I-95 corridor from New York City to Boston, the Weather Service said.

Massachusetts State Police responded to more than 200 crashes with property damage or injuries, including one fatal crash, starting Thursday evening, officials said. New Hampshire State Police reported at least 70 crashes Friday morning.

Snow emergencies, closures and power outages in Midwest, South

The heavy snow prompted a slew of local snow emergency warnings and school closures around Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee.

Tennessee was the hardest-hit state for power outages, specifically in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County.

“It is not going to be restored quickly,” said Gale Jones Carson, a spokeswoman for Memphis, Light, Gas and Water. “We’re hoping by Sunday that things will be better.”

Memphis resident Michael LaRosa described cracking and banging as the tree limbs fell, and the dull hum and pop of transformers blowing out in his tree-lined Midtown neighborhood. A fire started at the end of his street, caused by a live wire on Thursday.

“It was pretty surreal for a little while,” LaRosa, a professor at Rhodes College and a book editor, said Friday. “There were people walking in the streets, and I was worried that limbs were going to fall on them. The neighborhood sort of collapsed pretty quickly and pretty spectacularly.”

Ice and snow were still falling in Ohio, including in Cincinnati and Columbus.

Light snow is expected to continue to fall for an additional accumulation of 1 inch, according the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio. Temperatures in the low to mid-20s were expected Friday with wind chills in the single-digits in the morning and evening.

Meanwhile, with the storm’s precipitation mostly complete in Indiana, cold temperatures were expected Friday through the weekend. Saturday morning will see the coldest conditions of the weekend, meteorologists said, with the temperature hovering around 0 degrees and a wind chill value of minus 10 degrees.

‘Frigid’ temperatures in the heartland; hard freeze in Texas

The National Weather Service said “frigid temperatures” could also be expected in the Rockies and throughout the heartland on Friday.

In Dallas, the Weather Service issued a “hard freeze warning,” telling residents that unprotected pipes were at risk. Temperatures in the area were in the high 20s and low 30s, but wind chills between minus 5 and 5 degrees were expected overnight. Northwest Oklahoma could see wind chills as low as negative 15 degrees.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 17 counties on Thursday, describing the ice storm as “an imminent threat of severe property damage, injury, or loss of life.”

Contributing: Victoria E. Freile, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; Samuel Hardiman, Memphis Commercial Appeal; Sarah Nelson, Indianapolis Star; Krista Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal; Cheryl Vari, Emily DeLetter and Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer; The Associated Press