This archive report was first published on 16 December 2019.
Published on December 16, 2019, a severe winter storm system brought chaos to the country, claiming at least seven lives in car crashes on icy roads in Nebraska and Missouri over the weekend.
According to the authorities, the seven fatalities occurred in crashes on slick, icy roads on Sunday in Nebraska and Missouri. However, the storm system was expected to cause more disruptions as it moved east from Monday afternoon into Tuesday, bringing a mix of severe winter weather to Colorado, the Midwest, and up through Boston.
Patrick Burke, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center, warned that the storm system would bring a wide range of severe winter weather, including snow, freezing rain, and tornadoes.
‘It's really wide ranging,' Burke said.
As the storm system intensified, many parts of the country were already experiencing rain on Monday morning. Burke predicted that the impact of the weather would worsen and spread.
Some areas, such as parts of Nebraska and the Midwest, were already reeling from several inches of snow and icy roads over the weekend. The National Weather Service in Indianapolis reported that some areas had seen more than four inches of snow as of Sunday night.
Eastern Nebraska saw a four-vehicle crash on Sunday morning that left three people dead, said Cody Thomas, a spokesman for the Nebraska State Patrol. In eastern Missouri, a car slid off an icy roadway late Sunday afternoon and fatally struck three people who were standing outside another car that had lost control in the same area, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol.
At the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, about 20 arriving flights and 20 departing flights had been canceled as of 6 a.m.
A large stretch of the country, from Colorado to the Northeast, was expected to see one to two inches of snow through Tuesday, Burke said. However, there would be some deeper pockets in the St. Louis area and parts of New York around Buffalo and in the Catskills.
The Weather Service expected up to seven inches of snow in some parts of the St. Louis area, making travel ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible.' In and around the Buffalo area, the service expected three to five inches of snow starting Monday night.
Freezing rain and a ‘glaze of ice' were forecasted for southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and the mountains of West Virginia. The National Weather Service in State College, Pa., estimated up to half an inch of ice accumulation in Somerset County after ‘snow, sleet, and freezing rain' moved into the state overnight.
The National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss., warned that severe weather was likely on Monday and that severe storms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, a few tornadoes, and large hail were expected. Thunderstorms were also forecasted to intensify in states around the Gulf of Mexico.
