Snow Storm: Leaving The Midwest To Hit The Deep South

Even though the Midwest has still to get rid of all the snow, thing are getting better in matters of weather (msnbc.msn.com)

It happened – Chicago went through its third biggest snow storm ever.

Although things were said to improve after Wednesday afternoon, we now find out that the massive snow storm that hit the U.S. on Monday and continued its “attack” since then, is not going to stop soon. Although the Midwest and Northeast managed to dig out from the blizzard, the situation is not so good for parts of the Deep South, where the storm seems to be heading. For this reason, the National Weather Service placed the Mississippi river under Winter Storm Watch and Winter Weather Advisory, to make sure they keep things under control. It seems that 52 out of the 82 counties are included in the Winter Storm Watch, as snow may begin to fall today somewhere in the South, but it could develop greatly. Furthermore, the freezing rain and the sleet are expected to continue developing through Thursday night. Just as it happened in the Midwest, the icy roads are expected to create a big mess, thus making travel a bit hazardous.  However, there is also some good news. There seems to be a slightly warmer air that will come from the east on Friday morning, which will bring some improvements in what concerns the weather.

What seemed to be a little snow storm at the beginning of the week, transformed into one of the biggest storms the U.S. has seen in years and it is seems that yesterday night, the moisture that increased from the South has created sleet along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the National Weather Service reports said, there may be also some accumulations of ice on bridges and streets and that’s why people are asked to be very careful.

The massive snow storm covered more than 3,000 km – from Texas to Maine, and according to forecasters, trying to get around it can be a deadly thing.  Furthermore, a state of emergency was installed in states like Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, as snow rose at more than 118 inches in these states. Chicago was the most affected one in the snow storm, as this was clearly the third biggest storm that it has seen. The city was covered in snow mainly because of the blistering winds and firefighters had to drive snowmobiles to navigate the streets, as it was impossible to do it otherwise. “It’s amazing – it’s such a huge city and it’s silent,” said school teacher Elana Hiller. She went on saying that the city looked like Heaven, being so white and quite. That’s understandable, as more than 20 inches of snow fell on Chicago by Wednesday afternoon. This has caused the cancellation of about 6,300 flights only yesterday, in addition to the 7,000 flights cancelled on Tuesday and the 800 cancelled on Monday.

People are calling it the “Snowpocalypse,” and they should be blamed, really. NASA satellites have been monitoring the snow storm and the images show only a huge white cloud hovering above the United States. According to NASA, the blizzard brought harsh conditions in the Midwest, it made Mississippi River Valley build a massive piece of ice and if that wasn’t enough, the snow storm also brought with itself thunderstorms in the Deep South. Although cities like Philadelphia and New York City have recorded huge amounts of snow during the whole winter, Chicago is the one to be most affected by the blizzard that just swept the entire country, as it recorded 20.2 inches of snow. Still, as I said earlier, the Midwest is no longer in danger since yesterday, but people are still asked to be very careful, as the roads are still very dangerous and traffic accidents may happen. Moreover, people are also advised not make too much effort, as heart attacks due to overexertion are very common during this period of the year.

The downside is that people cannot fully recover yet from the massive storm, as it left behind a huge travel mess and power outages. Although the roads have been thoroughly cleaned, there’s still a high chance of accidents, given that ice can still form. Plus, it is very well known that snow storms affect everything – from jobs to entire businesses, as many stores, restaurants and other facilities had to be closed, due to the harsh weather conditions. Still, as some business owners say, things will come back to normal real quick, as this is not the first snow storm they are going through. This is actually the seventh major snow storm that has hit the United States in the past 6 weeks and given that there are a couple of weeks of winter left, people are resigned at the thought that snow could keep on coming.

In what concerns the effects of the blizzard, they will linger for a couple of days at least. Given the bitter cold, roads could take a couple of days to be cleaned, and there’s still a chance that ice spots could be left on, giving some headaches to drivers. Then, it could take up to one week to come back to normal in what concerns air traveling, given the high amount of flights that have been cancelled in the past 3 days. Schools are not opening yet, as officials said they would wait until this morning to decide what they are going to do on this subject. Finally, in matters of temperatures, the National Weather Service reported that they can go as high as 20 degrees, but there are also some areas which will see only 10 above zero.

Bottom line, try to keep safe and if you plan on cleaning your car and hitting the road, be very careful at the icy spots on the roads. Many traffic accidents have been reported in the past 3 days since the blizzard hit and a couple of people even got killed. In what concerns people from the East regions of the country, they should quickly make provisions and stay in their homes until tomorrow, when the snow storm is said to end.