Weather

Deadly ‘widespread wintry weather’ causes travel chaos in Midwest; severe weather risk in South

A weather system moving across the country has created travel chaos on highways across the Midwest, with several fatal accidents reported as millions are now under the risk of severe weather in the Deep South on Monday.The National Weather Service said that a low-pressure system developing a “sharp” cold front over the Deep South will…

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Published on January 17, 2020

The National Weather Service said that a low-pressure system developing a “sharp” cold front over the Deep South will cause “widespread” wintry precipitation from the Central Plains to the Northeast over the next several days, with heavy snow reported in some locations.

“We got a big old winter storm that's coming out way,” Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said on “Fox & Friends.”

Along the cold front, a swath of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain will move eastward through Tuesday.

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“Along that cold front we have the potential for showers, thunderstorms and unfortunately some ice,” Dean said. ” That's going to make its way towards the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast tomorrow.”

Wintry weather is forecast to impact the Midwest through the Northeast into Tuesday.
(Fox News)

The NWS' Weather Prediction Center said heavy snow falling in southern Colorado and the central Plains will continue on Monday, as a swath of wintry precipitation moves through the central Appalachians towards the Mid-Atlantic.

Additional wintry precipitation will expand as the system interacts with the cold front to bring more widespread snow to the Northeast, in addition to ice.

Forecast snow accumulations through this week.
(Fox News)

“A lot of problems on the roadways, my friends,” Dean said on “Fox & Friends.”

On Sunday, the storm system was blamed for several deaths and crashes across the Midwest. The Nebraska Highway Patrol said in a news release that three people were killed and four others were injured in a crash on Interstate 80 shortly after 11 a.m. on Sunday near Greenwood, Neb.

Two other people were killed in Sarpy County, Neb. when two vehicles were involved in a crash on southbound Highway 75, the sheriff's office told the Associated Press.

In Missouri, the state's Department of Public Safety said Monday that the storm system was blamed for four deaths in the state, including three people hit by another vehicle after a crash.

On Sunday, Troop F of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said it had 257 calls for service, including 96 crashes, 107 slide-offs, seven injuries, and one fatality. In the Kansas City area, Troop A said that it has received 520 calls for service on Sunday, including 209 stranded motorists, 137 non-injury crashes, and 13 injury crashes.

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First responders, including tow truck drivers, reported being busy on Sunday due to the number of crashes in the area.

“We have been swamped,” Kaileigh Kupchin, the office manager for Santa Fe Tow Service in Lenexa, Mo., told FOX4. “With the snow, we called in backup.”

Hundreds of crashes were reported across Missouri on Sunday as the storm system moved through.
(Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop A)

Kupchin said things picked up after the Kansas City Chiefs game ended, with more than 125 calls for service.

“Just some advice out there is to slow down,” Kupchin said. “Give yourself plenty of time to get to work on Monday. If you can, stay home and don't get out on the roads on Monday.”

As the storm system moved east, conditions on roadways in places like Indiana also deteriorated. A mother and her adult son died in a crash around 6:15 a.m. in Hancock County, located east of Indianapolis.

People pose for photos as snow falls in downtown Indianapolis, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019.
(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department told FOX59 the two were in a vehicle that was struck by a pickup that lost control, and that weather was believed to be a factor.

While the frozen precipitation has been causing most of the issues, forecasters are also warning that the same weather system is creating a chance for severe weather across the south.

Forecasters said more than 2.5 million people live in an area that faced an enhanced risk from twisters stretching from Louisiana through southern Mississippi into western Alabama. The area includes the cities of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

An enhanced risk of severe weather exists across the South on Monday.
(Fox News)

“We're going to see the potential for ice and severe storms, including tornadoes, across portions of the northern Gulf Coast,” Dean said Monday.

Another 18 million people from eastern Texas into western Georgia and as far north as the Tennessee-Kentucky line face a greater than normal risk of severe weather, the weather service said.

The storm system will impact the Midwest, the Northeast, and the Deep South.
(Fox News)

Forecasters said tornadoes, hail, and winds blowing at 70 mph posed the greatest threat as a cold front moves across the region in an easterly direction. Storms that are predicted to begin in the west could last until early Tuesday in the eastern part of the region, forecasters said.