Texas Ice Storm Plus Sand, Traffic Equals 'Cobblestone Ice

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/10/250012718/dallas-struggling-to-dig-out-from-winter-storm

The ice storm that's blanketed North Texas streets and highways has spawned a new name: cobblestone ice.

Cobblestone ice — sounds poetic, doesn't it?

Not if you've had to drive through it.

So what is it?

Ryan LaFontaine of the Texas Department of Transportation says cobblestone ice is a combination of ice accumulation and sand laid down by TxDOT and city trucks — which traffic compresses together to form a cobblestone-type surface, a thick layer of frozen ruts and potholes. In some places, it's several inches deep.

It's superbumpy ice that jolts you as you drive across it.

It doesn't help matters that the ice has been melting and refreezing.

It's stubborn

LaFontaine says it's not easy to get rid of it.

"It has to be kind of busted up and become a slushy substance in order for us to plow it to the side," he said.

TxDOT crews from the Dallas and Tarrant regions are out breaking up and removing as much of the cobblestone ice as they can during the day before it freezes up again at night.

Many normal snowplows have had problems removing the ice. So TxDOT has had to bring in motor graders from across the state to chew through the thick, stubborn stuff.

A tough time for truck drivers

Franchester Smith, a trucker, has been stuck in the ice at the Love's truck spot in Denton. She drove in from Atlanta. She's ready to move on.

Cobblestone ice, she says, is the worst.

"You got all these dents," Smith said. "It just makes it really bad. Where you think it's a pothole, but it's not. It's all the ice and snow that froze over it. You're rolling over it and rolling over it."

Eduardo Ruvalcaba, another trucker, has been stuck at a truck stop, the Travel Center of America, on Interstate 35 north of Denton since Thursday.

"It's not pretty," he said. "There was a coach bus that lost a tire because it was getting beat up so bad. All the truckers, that's what they've been complaining — our equipment is taking a beating over this."

Jon Gandelman, who's been driving trucks for 15 years, says he's used to winter storms. Usually, you try to plow through. But with these road conditions? It's another story. He arrived in Denton after being stuck in Oklahoma a couple of days. What's he been doing?

"A lot of sitting, a lot of ice. I'm from California and we chain up all the time to go across the mountain passes. That's just snow. When it's ice, you don't go anywhere."

'Moguls for cars'

"Moguls for cars," is how Larry Mowry described it. Mowry's the chief meteorologist at KTVT (Channel 11).

Winter Storm: Boston, Providence, New York City And Philadelphia Brace For Bad Weather

NEW YORK — A widespread winter storm dumped snow over the Northeast and parts of Ohio on Saturday, just days after the regions were hit by another storm moving from the nation's midsection.

The National Weather Service expected up to a foot of snow in parts of southern New England, with the heaviest snowfall possibly in Providence, R.I., and Boston, which declared parking bans to allow snow removal vehicles to clean the streets. Winter storm warnings were in effect in parts of those states and in Connecticut.

New York City and Philadelphia saw a mix of rain and snow as the storm moved in from the west. In Ohio, Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati saw about 2 to 5 inches of snow by Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

"Expect those accumulations to kind of work their way northeastward through much of New York state and much of New England," weather service meteorologist Brian Hurley said.

Drivers throughout the regions were warned to be cautious. Officials lowered the speed limit on much of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, about 300 miles from the Ohio state line to east-central Pennsylvania, from 65 mph to 45 mph.

About 20 vehicles piled up in a storm-related chain-reaction crash on Interstate 93 in New Hampton, N.H., police said, and five people were injured.

In Albany, N.Y., a regional jet skidded into a snow bank at the airport and became stuck, temporarily stranding passengers en route to Chicago. The 66 passengers and four crew members aboard the GoJet Airlines flight, operating as United Express, were put on a bus and sent back to the airport. There were no injuries, and the incident didn't cause any other flight delays, airport authority spokesman Doug Myers said.

Flights at Philadelphia's airport, mostly arrivals, were delayed about an hour, spokeswoman Stacy Jackson said.

Parts of southern Indiana saw 6 to 8 inches of snow from the storm, some in areas that had received more than a foot from a blizzard earlier in the week.

That blizzard was part of a storm system that dumped more than a foot of snow in some places and has been blamed for at least 16 deaths. It also spawned more than a dozen tornadoes in Alabama, the National Weather Service said.

But Saturday's snow wasn't as heavy as that of the previous storm, the weather service said.

Winter Storm Threatens U.S. East Coast

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/winter-storm-us-east-coast_n_4407547.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful storm system that spread hazardous snow, sleet and freezing rain widely across the nation's midsection rumbled toward the densely populated Eastern seaboard on Sunday, promising more of the same.

Forecasters said the potent system already blamed for numerous power outages and thousands of weekend flight cancellations elsewhere, has Virginia and other Mid-Atlantic states in its icy sights before the Northeast is up next.

Icy conditions were expected to last through the rest of the weekend from Texas to Ohio to Tennessee. And officials warned a major ice storm was possible in Virginia's Appalachian region along the busy Interstate 81 corridor .

In Virginia, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southard said the storm had the potential to be a "historic ice event."

"This forecast is very concerning to us," Southard said. "I've worked multiple disasters, but I've never worked an ice storm with a forecast like this. It's just really important for everybody to take extra precautions."

Forecasters said the storm caused freezing rain and icy conditions in parts of Tennessee as it surged across that state late Saturday and early Sunday. It also has been blamed for plunging temperatures as a cold front sweeps down from the North on the jet stream.

Bob Nations Jr., director of the emergency operations command center for the Memphis area, said early Sunday that ice coating roads, bridges and overpasses caused several multi-vehicle crashes. He issued a statement urging drivers to use extreme caution, particularly on bridges and overpasses.

Police in Memphis, meanwhile, urged motorists to stay home altogether if they could avoid travel early Sunday.

Ice had built up on the windshields and roofs of parked cars throughout Memphis during the day Saturday. Law enforcement reported an increase in traffic crashes, and scattered power outages affected more than 3,000 people, emergency and utility officials said.

"It looks like we're going to be stuck with this for one, two, maybe three days," said Memphis attorney Sam Chafetz, who tried to get off the roads before the worst of the storm hit. "I'm not afraid of the ice and snow, I'm afraid of the other drivers who don't know how to drive in it."

Forecasters said motorists traveling Interstate 81 between Roanoke, Va., and Hagerstown, Md., should be on the lookout Sunday for any deterioration in conditions like that in Texas when the storm crossed parts of that state Friday and Saturday.

In Texas earlier, icy and treacherous sections of Interstate 35 north of Dallas were closed for hours at a time after tractor-trailers had trouble climbing hills, wrecks occurred and vehicles stalled, authorities said.

Tina Pacheco, her husband and two friends were traveling through Texas on their way to Mexico when the ice-laden interstate became so treacherous that traffic came to a standstill. They were forced to spend Friday night in their pickup truck, which they kept running for heat.

"We couldn't go anywhere," she said, adding, "It's a good thing we had gas."

Ice up to 4 inches thick was reported on one interstate in Texas at the height of the storm there. And about 75,000 customers in the Dallas area went without power for a time Saturday, down from a peak of more than 270,000 earlier. Oklahoma utilities reported more than 7,500 power outages across the state and western Arkansas.

The weather forced the cancellation of countless events, including Sunday's Dallas Marathon, which was expected to draw 25,000 runners, some of whom had trained for months, and the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, expected to include 20,000.

Around 7 inches of snow fell in northeast Arkansas and the Missouri boot heel, according to the National Weather Service in Memphis, and 8 to 9 inches fell in parts of southern Indiana. The storm dumped a foot of snow and more in some areas of Illinois, with police scrambling to respond to dozens of accidents and forced scores of schools to remain closed.

Residents were told to prepare for a few days without power, prompting them to rush to stores to stock up on groceries, buy electricity generators and gas up their cars. Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell reminded residents to check on family and friends who are elderly, disabled or live alone.

Rush hour snowy but smooth, now here comes the cold

A generally smooth rush hour was reported this morning as the second winter storm to hit in four days dropped up to 3 inches of snow across the Chicago area. Next up: Brutal cold.

State police reported clear expressways with few accidents this morning, and both CTA and Metra posted no major delays. Disruptions were minimal at the city's two airports, with 50 cancellations and 76 delays at O'Hare International Airport and 9 cancellations and 30 delays at Midway, according to FlightsStats, a reporting service that draws from airline and airport data.

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The forecast was for up to 3 inches of snow, with the brunt hitting between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. The most accumulation was being reported in the west and south suburbs, according to the Chicago Weather Center.

The city of Chicago sent 250 large plows into the streets in advance of the storm about midnight, according to Molly Poppe, with the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation. The plows used beet juice in addition to road salt, a practice common when temperatures are especially low. 

State crews were also able to stay ahead of the storm and keep roads clear, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The storm comes one day after the city recorded its earliest sub-zero temperature in 18 years and the first time the temperature has fallen to six degrees below zero this early in the season since 1978.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill advisory from 6 p.m. today until 10 a.m. Thursday. It warned that temperatures will fall into the single digits this afternoon and below zero this evening. Winds chills could be down to 10 to 20 below zero this afternoon and 15 to 30 below zero tonight.

Since Dec. 5, temperatures have been 14 to 16 degrees below average. Early Tuesday, it registered minus-6 degrees at O'Hare International Airport. That's the earlier subzero temperature in Chicago since minus-4 was recorded at O'Hare on Dec. 9, 1995. It was also the coldest temperature in the first 10 days of December since minus-8 degrees on Dec. 10, 1978.

Deadly Winter Storm System Moves East After Striking Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/deadly-winter-storm-moves-east_n_4342842.html

NEW YORK (AP) — Thanksgiving travelers scrambled to book earlier flights Tuesday to avoid a sprawling storm bearing down on the East Coast with a messy mix of snow, rain and wind that threatened to snarl one of the busiest travel days of the year and ground giant balloon versions of Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants in the Macy's parade.

The iconic characters that soar through the Manhattan skyscrapers every year may not lift off Thursday if sustained winds exceed 23 mph and gusts exceed 34 mph, according to city rules enacted after fierce winds in 1997 caused a Cat in the Hat balloon to topple a light pole and seriously injure a woman spectator.

Current forecasts call for sustained winds of 20 mph and gusts of 36 mph.

"At this time, it is too early to make any determinations on the flight of the giant balloons," said Macy's spokesman Orlando Veras. "On Thanksgiving morning, Macy's works closely with the NYPD, who, based on real time weather data and the official regulations determine if the balloons will fly and at what heights."

Balloons have only been grounded once in the parade's 87-year history, when bad weather kept them from flying in 1971. They're set to be inflated in Manhattan on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, meteorologists warned that the storm, which has moved across the country, would almost certainly upset holiday travel plans on Wednesday for those hoping to visit loved ones in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Many travelers were moving to earlier flights, taking advantage of airlines' policies to waive their normal change fees.

Lisa Jablon was originally supposed to fly Delta from New York City to Syracuse, N.Y., on Wednesday at 9:39 a.m. But after following the storm's movements, she decided to jump on the last flight out Tuesday night.

"I'm flying up to spend the holiday with my boyfriend's family and I didn't want to get stuck," Jablon said. "The rain seems to be better off tonight than it looks tomorrow morning."

The good news is that the storm is supposed to pass through the northeast before Thanksgiving Day, with the weather mostly clearing up by Wednesday evening.

Winter Storm Moves Into Mid-Atlantic

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/08/249543348/winter-storm-moves-into-mid-atlantic

Freezing rain has been creeping across Tennessee on its way to the mid-Atlantic as the stunning cold, snow and ice that gripped Texas and the west on Saturday advance eastward.

The storm is expected to turn Virginia and Pennsylvania into an icy mess today and scrabble north into New York and southern New England tonight.

Roads will be perilous in many places by this evening and forecasters warned travelers and holiday shoppers to stay home.

"This is a dangerous storm," Kevin Witt, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Virginia, told The New York Times. "The roads may just look wet, but you could have a sheet of ice there. It's best to stay home."

Washington, D.C., may be the slickest of the cities along the I-95 corridor, according to AccuWeather.com — it's the furthest west of those cities and likely the slowest to warm up. As the system blows north later today, many inland areas will warm slightly and the wintery mix will change to just plain rain.

Air travel in the mid-Atlantic is likely to be riddled with delays. Adding to the travel misery, the snow forecast for the Midwest threatens to muck up flight schedules in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Kansas City.

Meanwhile, northern Texas and Arkansas are still bitter cold and coated with ice, and tens of thousands of homes are without power — down from a quarter-million left in the dark after the height of the storm on Friday.

No precipitation is forecast, but Dallas and other areas won't see substantial melting until midweek at the soonest, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Enlarge image

Palm trees are wrapped in insulation for protection from the sub-freezing temperatures in Tyler, Texas, on Saturday.

Dr. Scott M. Lieberman/AP

Highs will linger in the low 30s from northern Texas to Arkansas — about 20 degrees below normal — through Tuesday, says AccuWeather.com.

"The forecast, I guess, is really just continued cold," National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer Dunn told the Morning News.

Two days after Friday's storm, roads resemble ice rinks and highways north and west of Dallas are strewn with abandoned cars, KPAX in Missoula, Mont. reports. Accidents late Saturday closed interstates in Fort Worth. In suburban Denton County, two 18-wheelers got stuck on an icy hill Friday night, jamming traffic until Saturday afternoon. Residents took food and blankets to cars on the road and many left their vehicles to wait inside churches.

One driver died after losing control and sliding off an icy bridge into nearby Lewisville Lake, as the Denton Record-Chroniclereports.

Bad as the storm is in the U.S., it pales in comparison to northern Europe's weekend weather. England is cleaning up after gale-strength winds up to 100 mph clobbered the east coast. It was the worst storm surge in the region in more than half a century and left two dead, the BBC reported.

Seven houses fell off a cliff and into the North Sea and a lifeboat station was washed away in Hemsby, Norfolk. Hundreds of grey seals were killed in the surge along the Norfolk coast.

The storm then barreled onto the continent with hurricane-force winds, killing at least seven people. The storm flooded parts of Hamburg, left thousands of homes without power and cancelled dozens of flights at Berlin and Copenhagen airports.

Winter Storm Plows Through Mid-Atlantic To Hit New England

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/09/249698645/winter-storm-plows-through-mid-atlantic-to-hit-new-england

Winter won't officially begin for nearly two more weeks, but a winter storm continued to plow across much of the eastern part of the U.S. on Monday, bringing a dangerous mix of snow, ice and freezing rain. The storm knocked out power in some areas, fouled morning commutes and caused more than a thousand flights to be cancelled.

"Heavy snow fell Sunday in the Mid-Atlantic, with more than 8 inches reported in Philadelphia and a foot in nearby Newark, Del.," The Associated Press reports.

From the National Weather Service:

"A complicated storm extending from the Great Lakes/Northeast to the Central Gulf Coast will move northeastward to Southeastern Canada and off the East Coast by Tuesday. The system will produce freezing rain/sleet over parts of the Mid-Atlantic that will change over to rain by Monday afternoon. Snow will develop over the Great Lakes into New England through Monday evening."

The AP notes that "power outages were reported in Virginia, parts of West Virginia, Maryland and the metropolitan Washington, D.C."

As of early Monday morning, airline tracker Flightaware.com said 1,175 flights that had been scheduled to travel in the U.S. were scuttled.

Much of that travel trouble began at the airport at Dallas-Fort Worth, where more than 350 flights have been canceled, according to Flightaware. Dallas was shellacked with up to four inches of ice when the storm barreled through on its way east, according to NPR member station KERA. Many schools and roads will be closed Monday, the station says.

KERA also says that more than 115,000 people in North Texas lost electrical service over the weekend because of the storm — and that the temperatures in Dallas aren't expected to touch 40 degrees until Wednesday.

The most active portions of the storm are now strung out in an area from Virginia into New England. Areas that were hit with snow this weekend — such as New York and Philadelphia — could see anywhere from 1-6 inches early this week, according to AccuWeather.

"This snow will cause headaches for millions on Tuesday across the I-95 corridor, especially those taking to the roads," meteorologist Brian Lada writes.

In the West, a mass of cold air has brought bone-chilling cold to areas that already endured the winter storm.

In Montana, for instance, Missoula's KPAX TV is predicting a high of 17 Monday, with a low of 6 below zero.

And a separate system from western Canada is expected to move into the Northern Plains and bring snow to parts of that area and the Rockies, according to the National Weather Service.

Update at 8:20 p.m. ET. Weather-Related Deaths At 12:

CNN reports: "At least 12 people have died because of the weather, mostly in traffic accidents. Eight died in Oklahoma alone, including a 6-year-old who fell through ice on a creek in Tulsa and men who died in house fires in Westville and Tulsa, the state Department of Emergency Management reported on Monday."

Snow Follows On Heels Of Ice Storm In The East

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/10/249959519/snow-follows-on-heels-of-ice-storm-in-the-east

A fast-moving winter storm swept through the Eastern U.S. on Tuesday, bringing several inches of snow to the region, causing flights to be canceled, traffic to be snarled and federal government offices in Washington, D.C., to be shut for the day.

Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New England got up to 6 inches of snow, and the nation's midsection experienced frigid temperatures.

By noon, however, the storm had largely tapered off and warmer temperatures turned snow into light rain and melted off much of the earlier accumulation.

It was the second dose of winter weather in the Eastern half of the U.S.

Far more snow is expected near the Great Lakes, where two clipper systems will bring snow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Heavy Lake Effect snows will also impact the Lower Great Lakes into later this week, with up to two feet of accumulation," the weather agency says.

The weather has forced airlines to cancel more than 1,300 flights on Tuesday, according to commercial aviation tracking site FlightAware. Large airports in Newark, N.J., Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia each reported more than 200 total cancellations for inbound and outbound flights, as did New York's LaGuardia Airport.

In the Washington, D.C., metro area, non-emergency federal employees were granted an excused absence Tuesday, while other employees were told to telecommute.

Many schools and businesses closed for the day, sparking a rash of tweets with the tag#snowday Tuesday morning.

And as is often the case, some people complained about the closings — while others complained about places being open.

In many areas, the precipitation is being followed by cold air that is keeping the snow, and ice from a storm earlier this week, intact.

That combination has introduced the idea of "cobblestone ice" to drivers in North Texas, where several inches of ice have accumulated since the weekend.

The Texas Department of Transportation's Ryan LaFontaine "says cobblestone ice is a combination of ice accumulation and sand laid down by TxDOT and city trucks — and then traffic compresses the stuff together to form a cobblestone-type surface, a thick layer of frozen ruts and potholes," reports NPR member station KERA.

"It has to be kind of busted up and become a slushy substance in order for us to plow it to the side," LaFontaine says.

KERA spoke to several truck drivers who were staying put at a Travel Center of America on I-35 near Denton, Texas.

Winter Storm System Blamed For 8 Deaths Moves East

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/24/247022242/winter-storm-system-blamed-for-8-deaths-moves-east

An already deadly winter storm system is moving toward the the East on Sunday.

As The Associated Press reports, the system has already been blamed for eight deaths in the West and meteorologists are warning of widespread snow, freezing temperatures and strong winds.

The AP adds:

"Joe Harris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the 'Nordic outbreak' will 'produce a mixed bag of wily weather that will end up impacting much of the nation.'

"In New Mexico, authorities and residents braced for the second hit of a one-two punch that had already blanketed parts of the state with snow and freezing rain and caused a rollover accident that killed a 4-year-old girl in the eastern part of the state.

"Three other storm-related deaths were reported Saturday in a crash in the Texas Panhandle involving nearly a dozen vehicles."

Accuweather reports that the low-pressure system driving the storm will move across the South and hug the East Coast, perhaps upending some holiday travel plans.

"If the storm hugs the coast and develops to its full potential, it could be a flight nightmare, not only for travelers in the East, but also throughout the nation," Accuweather's Evan Myers said.

More immediately, Weather.com reports that the second half of the system will bring ice and snow through the Southern Plains. Weather.com adds:

"This wave will bring accumulating freezing rain and/or sleet as far east as the Dallas-Ft. WorthMetroplex, where a winter storm warning is now posted.

"Ice is also possible along the I-35 corridor to as far south as Austin Sunday into Sunday night. Some icing may also spread as far east as Arkansas and northern Louisiana Sunday night into early Monday.

"Power outages and downed tree limbs are possible in locations that see the most significant ice amounts from southwest Texas into central Texas. This is generally expected in the area west of I-35 between I-10 and I-20, including cities such as San Angelo, Abilene, Junction, and Brady. Parts of the Texas Hill Country as far south as Fredericksburg and Kerrville could see some ice buildup Sunday night into early Monday."

Winter Storm Dion: Snow and Ice Totals by State

http://www.wunderground.com/news/winter-storm-dion-snow-totals-state-20131208

Mississippi

• 0.10" about 3 miles southeast of Horn Lake
• 0.10" in Tunica

Kentucky

• 0.75" in Kevil (western Kentucky)
• 0.33" in western Grayson  County (south-central Kentucky)
• 0.30" in Fordsville (Ohio County)

Maryland

• 0.30" in Germantown
• 0.25" in Montgomery Village
• 0.20" in Cambridge

Illinois

• up to 0.10" in Pana

Arkansas

• up to 0.10" in Texarkana

MORE: Photos of Winter Storm Dion

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A person walks on a deserted pedestrian walkway on a snowy morning in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. Residents along the East Coast and in the Appalachians woke up to snow Tuesday and government workers and students in the DC area were told to stay home as the region saw a round of snow that came just a few days after some parts already got several inches. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)