Storm races through Ohio Valley to Mid-Atlantic

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Sliding cars and jackknifed trucks snarled highway traffic, and flights were grounded Tuesday as a storm blew out of the Midwest with a threat of up to 2 feet of blowing, drifting snow.

The National Weather Service posted winter storm watches and warnings from Iowa and Missouri across the Ohio Valley into parts of New England.

As the storm plowed eastward, more than 2 inches of snow fell by midday at Pittsburgh, while parts of Indiana measured more than 11 inches with drifts up to 6 feet, the weather service said.

Up to 18 inches of snow was forecast for northern Pennsylvania, with a chance of 2 feet at higher elevations. Twenty-inch accumulations were possible in parts of New York state, where communities on the eastern end of Lake Ontario have endured a week of lake-effect snow that totaled more than 11 feet.

Schools were canceled or delayed in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The University of Illinois in Champaign canceled classes for the first time since 1979.

At least four traffic deaths were blamed on the snow and ice, three in Nebraska and one in Missouri. A tornado on the southern side of the weather system killed one person in Louisiana.

Heavy snow and strong winds made for a dangerous mix around much of Missouri Tuesday, causing dozens of accidents, canceling flights and prompting warnings to stay home unless it was completely necessary to get out.

By evening, the National Weather Service was still tallying snowfall amounts, even as snow continued to pound the eastern part of the state. Preliminary totals showed some parts of northeast and east central Missouri with up to 8 inches of snow.

By the time the snow ends, those totals could grow substantially, said Ben Miller of the National Weather Service office in suburban St. Louis.

Making matters worse, Miller said, was the 30 mph winds that accompanied the storm, causing a virtual whiteout in parts of the state.Pennsylvania's two largest airports, at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, reported no major problems by afternoon.

Elsewhere, however, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled more than 500 flights, airport and airline officials said. Midway Airport canceled about 150 flights. About 20 percent of the flights out of Cincinnati's main airport were canceled because of poor conditions elsewhere, spokesmen said.

Ohio state officials said southbound lanes of Interstate 75 were closed in the Dayton area by jackknifed tractor-trailer rigs.

"People are sliding off everywhere," said Joe Whittaker, emergency management director in west-central Indiana's Fountain County.

Along the southern edge of the snow belt, freezing rain coated roads, tree limbs and power lines with as much as three-quarters of an inch of ice. About 8,500 Duke Energy customers lost power in Indiana, said spokeswoman Angeline Protogere.

Earlier this month, a stretch of more than a week of bitter cold and slippery roads contributed to at least 25 deaths.