WASHINGTON: A large winter storm reaching from Texas to southern New England, which prompted school closings and led to almost 2,300 flight cancellations, had dumped over a foot (30cm) of snow on parts of the eastern United States by early Thursday morning.
National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec said Kentucky was buried under snow, with 16 inches (41cm) reported in the city of Radcliff and over a foot falling elsewhere in the state.
Parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio recorded as much as 11 inches (28cm) of snow, according to the weather service. Rain falling on states throughout the mid-Atlantic seaboard and into southern New England overnight was expected to turn into snow through the morning hours, Oravec said.
Forecasters warned of dangerous travel conditions throughout the region. Ahead of the storm, hundreds of school districts and local governments, including state legislatures in South Carolina and Tennessee, said they would close on Thursday.
The US Senate and the House of Representatives cancelled their legislative sessions and most of their hearings scheduled for Thursday as well.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin mobilised the state’s National Guard ahead of the storm, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency.
A total of 2,289 US flights for Thursday were cancelled, according to FlightAware.com, with Dallas/Fort Worth International the airport hardest hit.
Boston, which posted its coldest February on record, might not see any snow from the newest storm, the weather service said, contrary to earlier forecasts that projected as much as three inches (8cm) for the city.
Boston needs two more inches to break its record annual snowfall total of nearly 108 inches, which was set in 1995-96.
