Severe storms pummel parts of US with snow and high winds and raise tornado threat

CHICAGO, March 16, (AP): Successive punches of snow and wind were set to impact the eastern half of the United States on Monday as severe weather swept across much of the nation and made roads impassable in the Upper Midwest. Forecasters said mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C., were at greatest risk for high winds and tornadoes.

The cold front was expected to move off the East Coast by Tuesday, bringing sharply colder weather in its wake, forecasters said. The late winter blast comes as Hawaii continued to be affected by a separate storm system that caused severe flooding over the weekend. The National Weather Service that warned a line of severe storms with damaging winds would cross much of the Eastern US.

After firing up Sunday, the storms were crossing the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys. The storm threat was expected to enter the Appalachians, then move toward the East Coast, where "severe thunderstorms with widespread damaging winds and several tornadoes” were expected, the service said. A stretch from parts of South Carolina to Maryland appeared most likely to experience the greatest damaging winds Monday afternoon, the weather service said. That could include Raleigh, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, and the nation’s capital.

Officials said schools in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, would be closed Monday. Gov. Josh Stein urged residents to enable emergency alerts on their phones ahead of expected wind gusts of 74 mph (119 kph). Beyond the threat to lives and property, "whether it’s wind gusts from a squall line, blizzard or snow, or just wind because of the storm, you’re looking at several major airports being impacted," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys.

An area from central Wisconsin to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was likely to see over 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow, with higher isolated totals on the peninsula, Roys said. Lower snow accumulations in places such as Chicago and Milwaukee will likely create trouble for commuters on Monday, he added. Jim Allen, 45, who lives on the Upper Peninsula, said his family stocked up on necessities and he was ready to clear snow several times Sunday with a shovel and snowblower.

"We’re basically prepared to just kind of hunker down for a few days if we need to,” Allen said. More than 600 flights were canceled at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight disruptions. Dozens more through Detroit were scrapped. O'Hare and Midway international airports in Chicago reported more than 850 cancellations. More than 210,000 utility customers in six Great Lakes states were without electricity Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. Some originated on Friday when gusts in the region reached 85 mph (137 km). Widespread outages also were reported in parts of Pennsylvania and Arkansas.