Storm makes for treacherous travel as snow and ice track through the mid-Atlantic

A storm system is bearing down on the mid-Atlantic states, covering roads with snow and ice and leading to school closures and worries about possible power outages
Maryland Department of Transportation employees use a backhoe to load a truck with salt at the State Highway Administration District 6 Office in LaVale, Md., Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Steve Bittner/Cumberland Times-News via AP)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Maryland Department of Transportation employees use a backhoe to load a truck with salt at the State Highway Administration District 6 Office in LaVale, Md., Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Steve Bittner/Cumberland Times-News via AP)

A storm system bore down Tuesday on the mid-Atlantic states, covering roads with snow and ice and leading to school closures and worries about possible power outages.

The heaviest snow — up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) — was forecast for parts of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) in the Roanoke Valley of southwest Virginia, the National Weather Service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups.

"Did you think winter was over? Think again!" the weather service's office in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a post on X. Snow mixed with sleet spread into western Virginia and North Carolina early Tuesday, with snow expected to quickly worsen road conditions in the morning before freezing rain moves in during the afternoon, the office said in posts Tuesday.

Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it has requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems by Tuesday morning.

About 65 Virginia National Guard soldiers waited Tuesday at facilities along the Interstate 95 and state Route 29 corridors and in southwest Virginia to support the storm response, guard officials said in a news release. Another 20 soldiers and members of the Virginia Defense Force were in support roles.

Troops with heavy-duty trucks were organized in chain-saw teams to help clear roads and power line routes. Black Hawk helicopters with rescue hoist capabilities were also on standby.

Winter storm warnings extended Tuesday from Kentucky to southern New Jersey. The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon.

A separate storm system is set to bring heavy snow starting Tuesday night from Kansas and Missouri to the Great Lakes, the weather service said.

Treacherous travel

In Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday, the state Department of Transportation advised motorists to stay off the roads as the storm moved through. In northern Virginia, the National Park Service closed a section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the Potomac River.

In West Virginia, Smith’s Towing and Truck Repair responded to 10 calls from drivers whose vehicles got stuck in the snow and ice on Interstate 64 near the Virginia border, dispatcher Kelly Pickles said. Four of the vehicles were tractor trailers.

“Basically, they just get sucked over into the median or they go off of the interstate just a little bit on the right hand side,” she said. “And they just don’t have enough power in their vehicles to get back onto the road due to the icy conditions. So we just have to take our four-wheel-drive wrecker out there and winch them back out onto the road.”

The company is based in Greenbrier County, which could get as much as 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow. And while Pickles urged motorists to stay off the roads, she said Tuesday’s snowstorm is relatively normal for the mountainous region.

During a snowstorm in early January, the company towed about three to four vehicles per hour back onto the roads, Pickles said.

‘A wonderland’

Paige Williams, who owns Downtown Books in Lexington, Virginia, described a kind of “fluffy snow that sticks to things” that was coming down heavily and limiting visibility at her home outside the city in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“It makes it just like a wonderland,” Williams said. “It’s beautiful out here. It’s sticking to the evergreens and to some of the rock walls. And it’s really just gorgeous.”

Williams, 58, closed her store, as Lexington is expected to get as much as 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow. She hopes to reopen Wednesday, noting that Lexington and surrounding Rockbridge County are dependable when it comes to clearing the roads.

But with temperatures on either side of freezing Tuesday night and Wednesday, the rain that’s supposed to follow could make the roads better or worse.

“It’s just going to depend on where those temperatures go,” Williams said. “Rain can clear things off. And rain can also freeze. And then you have a lot of skating rinks instead of roads.”

Flooding possible

A flood watch was posted for a wide swath of Kentucky, Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia and northern Georgia.

In eastern Tennessee, forecasters warned that the flood threat will increase throughout the week, with up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain possible by Sunday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it was taking steps to capture runoff and mitigate flood risk, including lowering some lake levels and emptying storage reservoirs.

Frigid temperatures

An Arctic air mass stretched Tuesday from Portland, Oregon, to the Great Lakes.

In Detroit, where temperatures dropped into the lower teens (about minus 11 Celsius), two children under age 10 likely died from exposure to the cold after they were discovered with other family members Monday in a van in a casino parking garage, police said. Their family may have been living in the van.

“This was unnecessary. It didn’t have to happen this way,” police Capt. Nathan Duda told WJBK-TV.

The temperature bottomed out at minus 31 (minus 35 Celsius) Tuesday morning in Butte, Montana, where at least five people have died due to cold exposure over the past two winters, said Brayton Erickson, executive director of the Butte Rescue Mission. Advocates for the homeless in the city of about 35,000 would be out in the streets distributing sleeping bags, jackets, mittens and other cold weather gear to anyone who needs them, Erickson said.

“When it gets this cold, we kind of pull out all the stops,” he said.

Temperatures also dipped to minus 21 (minus 29 Celsius) in Bismarck, North Dakota.

In Oregon’s Multnomah County, where a hypothermia death was confirmed earlier this month, officials declared a state of emergency Monday night ahead of temperatures that dipped just below freezing and opened three shelters with over 230 beds in the Portland area. Readings were expected to drop to as low as 5 degrees (minus 15 Celsius) on Tuesday night.

Atmospheric river

Forecasters are predicting an atmospheric river in California starting Thursday, according to Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist with the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center. It's expected to bring heavy rainfall along the coast and into the central valleys, and heavy snowfall in the Sierras through Saturday.

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Associated Press writers from across the U.S. contributed to this report.