Six More Dead: Winter Blast Ices Over Country's Roads

At least six more people died Sunday in weather-related accidents as January-like ice and snow froze roadways over more than half the country, authorities said.

Four people died Sunday in the Lubbock, Texas, area, where police reported more than 50 accidents on icy roads since dawn. One person was killed in a three-car crash on Interstate 94 near Rogers, Minnesota, on Sunday morning — a day after five other people were killed in weather-related crashes on Minnesota's slick roads, state police said. And in Dinsmore Township, Ohio, a 25-year-old man was killed when he veered off the road in icy conditions and rolled his vehicle before dawn Sunday, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said.

A swath of the country cutting through parts of 18 states — stretching from New Mexico to New England — remained under winter weather advisories, along with another cluster of eight states in the country's northern midsection, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures will dip below zero in areas of the northern Rockies, High Plains and Upper Midwest, according to The Weather Channel. Wind gusts in those areas could reach 50 mph, according to the NWS, which warned of whiteout conditions due to snowfall earlier in the week. Even the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles will likely see single-digit temperatures, The Weather Channel predicted.

The chilly front, bringing temperatures in the 20s to the East, will linger until Tuesday. "By Tuesday, the whole eastern half of the United States will have temperatures from 15 to 30 degrees below average," said Tom Moore, a coordinating meteorologist for The Weather Channel, who added that it will be easier to count "who isn't" affected by the cold blast than who is.

And the cold isn't the only issue. The storm that was bringing 1 to 3 inches of snow to the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma on Sunday will progress to the Ohio Valley and the Northeast overnight, said Michael Palmer of The Weather Channel, and the strengthening system could drop 3 to 5 inches on Cincinnati on Monday. By Wednesday, parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York closest to the Great Lakes could accumulate up to 2 feet of snow, Palmer said. "The expansiveness and longevity of this cold — this one-two punch — is pretty unique," Moore said. "It doesn't happen very often."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/six-more-dead-winter-blast-ices-over-countrys-roads-n249611