CHICAGO - A storm with a 2,000-mile footprint threatened to frustrate Christmas travelers from Texas to Nova Scotia with a little of everything Mother Nature has to offer, including freezing rain, ice and snow, flooding, thunderstorms and possibly some tornadoes in the South.
Some of the millions of people hitting the roads and airports Saturday squeaked through before any severe weather hit, but as the afternoon wore on, cancellations and delays started to mount at major aviation hubs. Forecasters said roads that are passable one minute could become treacherous the next as a cold blast on the back end of the storm turns rain to ice and snow.
The system was a swirl of wintry and springlike weather that left parts of the Mid-west with freezing conditions and places such as Memphis with temperatures that surpassed 70 degrees Saturday.
“This is a particularly strong storm with very warm, near record-breaking temperatures in the East and very cold air in the Midwest, and that contrast is the sort of conditions that are favorable for not only winter weather but also tornadoes,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Danaher in College Park, Md.
The worst of the storm was expected to hit Midwest population centers Saturday night, giving some travelers a window at the start of the holiday rush to get through airports and along highways with little disruption. Nationwide, nearly 500 flights had been canceled Saturday and more than 7,000 delayed as of 11 p.m. CST, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. Most of the disruptions affected flights in and out of major hubs such as O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, though the weather there was not yet nasty.
Other major airports affected Saturday afternoon included Dallas/Fort Worth International and Denver International.
The storm comes at a bad time for the estimated 94.5 million Americans planning to travel by road or air during this holiday season, which runs from Saturday through New Year’s Day, and those hitting the roads for some last-minute shopping.
If there is a silver lining, said AAA spokesman Heather Hunter, it’s that Christmas happens midweek this year, giving travelers more flexibility.
Darren Hall, 45, of Raymore, Mo., usually drives to St. Louis for the holiday but decided not to risk it because freezing rain was expected to hit the area. Instead, he was waiting for a train at Kansas City’s Union Station.
“You don’t have to deal with all the roads. It’s safer, less hassle,” Hall said.
The storm had several bands of strikingly different weather.
In the Upper Midwest, forecasters expected 6-8 inches of snow to fall north and west of Chicago and into Wisconsin.
It was already delivering significant ice accumulations to Oklahoma, southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, splitting trees and snapping power lines. That was expected to change to snow by Saturday night.
Northern New England was bracing for an ice storm Saturday night and into today that forecasters said could bring more than a half-inch of ice to parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, which would make roads treacherous and cause widespread power failures.
“We’ve lined up hundreds of additional out-of-state line workers and tree trimmers in addition to all the GMP employees who will be working until all power is restored,” Vermont Green Mountain Power spokesman Dorothy Schnure said.
Meanwhile, New York City, Philadelphia and Atlantic City, N.J., were among the major Northeast cities experiencing record-breaking high temperatures.
The National Weather Service said the temperature in Central Park hit a record 65degrees Saturday.
The weather service said Philadelphia and Atlantic City both reached 67 degrees Saturday afternoon.
Today, it is supposed to be even warmer in the region, with temperatures expected to top 70 degrees.
The weather service issued a flash-flood watch from Arkansas northeast through parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, with up to 4 inches of rain projected. With falling temperatures, there was expected to be a chance of freezing rain by Saturday night in the St. Louis area, weather service meteorologist Jon Carney said.
The weather service posted flood warnings along streams in southern and central Indiana and predicted the highest flood crests along the East Fork of the White River since April 2011.
While the Midwest and Plains were preparing for ice and snow, residents in the South were concerned about tornadoes, which forecasters said were possible even though they are uncommon this time of year. A tornado watch was in place Saturday evening for a more than 600-mile stretch from far-East Texas to western Tennessee, which also covered parts of western Louisiana, southeast Arkansas and northwest Mississippi.
In Mississippi, a man died Saturday when a storm flipped a mobile home.
Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith said the man was inside the mobile home in the Rena Lara community when it blew over, pinning him between the home and a tree.
Meredith said the victim’s name is being withheld pending family notification.
Jasper County Coroner Randy Graham said another man died when his car hit a tree that had fallen across a county road near Heidelberg. A woman in the car was critically injured.
Entergy Mississippi reported almost 11,000 customers without power.
Rain and ice in Oklahoma were blamed for two fatal traffic accidents and thousands of power failures. A 16-year-old boy died early Saturday when his car crashed and overturned on U.S. 64 near Tulsa, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Oklahoma City police said a woman was killed Friday night in a collision on a slick roadway.
Forecasters said up to a half-inch of ice could accumulate across the middle of the state.
Meanwhile, more than 24,000 remained without power Saturday.
“We have, statewide, 19,351without power,” said Oklahoma Gas and Electric spokesman Karen Kurtz. “We’ve got a little over 7,900 outages in the Oklahoma City metro area … all weather-related.”
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma reported 5,700 failures statewide, more than 4,100 of those in the Tulsa-metro area. Spokesman Stan Whiteford said the company expects power to be fully restored today.
A 45-mile north-south route of U.S. 287 in the Texas Panhandle was closed Saturday because of about 20 traffic accidents in freezing, snowy conditions, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Senior Trooper Chris Ray said the wrecks continued throughout the day, and officers closed the highway Saturday afternoon to clear the accident scenes. Ray said no one was killed, but several people were injured.
The National Weather Service issued wind advisories Saturday in Alabama and said much of the state was expected to experience winds gusting to 35 mph through this afternoon. A chance of severe storms and isolated tornadoes was predicted.
In Georgia, forecasters said heavy rains and severe storms were possible as the system moved through the state today.
The National Weather Service said the threat of scattered storms and isolated tornadoes was to start in the state’s northwest corner before dawn, dumping as much as 4 inches of rain in the southwest and northeast regions. Much of northern Georgia was under a flood watch.
On Friday, a woman sleeping in a hotel in the western Michigan city of Holland was injured when a motorist lost control of his car on an icy street and slammed into the wall outside her room, MLive.com reported.
Information for this article was contributed by Jason Keyser, Heather Hollingsworth, Lisa Rathke, David Sharp, Shelley Adler and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/22/2013