Arctic air, ice storm, severe weather blasts East
The first "winter" storm (it's not officially winter until this Wednesday) struck the East over the weekend, between massive Arctic outbreaks which defied the season. Central North Carolina was treated to an ice storm, which also affected areas of the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley. New England got their first significant snowfall of the season. Severe weather also broke out in the Mississippi Valley. Here's what the radar looked like Saturday morning:
Here's a look at the storm reports and warnings:
Up to 1 inch of sleet fell in Maryland, while 0.3 to 0.5 of an inch of freezing rain downed trees and power lines in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont and Maine. Icy roads in Baltimore caused a massive 55-car pileup with a tanker fire that killed two people and was caught on film.
The top snow reports by state were as follows:
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Shot Point, MI: 16.0"
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Rochester, NY: 12.1"
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Sturgeon, WI: 12.0"
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Ashtabula, OH: 10.2"
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Meadville, PA: 10.0"
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Waterville Valley, NH: 9.0"
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Winstead, CT: 8.3"
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Bridgton, ME: 8.0"
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Savoy, MA: 8.0"
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Halifax, VT: 7.0"
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Burrillville, RI: 5.0"
There were seven tornado reports and six funnel cloud reports in Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee Saturday (map below) and multiple waterspout reports Sunday off Long Island.
The Arctic air continues to batter the nation; Aberdeen, South Dakota's, wind chill fell to -58 F Sunday morning. Newcomb, Montana, fell to -37 Saturday morning. Dodge City, Kansas, had their coldest day in 27 years, and Amarillo, Texas, plummeted from 74 degrees Friday afternoon to -3 F Saturday night, falling 20 degrees in one hour:
As of this Monday morning, 84% of the nation's land (and 72% of the population in the U.S.) is below freezing this morning; 31% of the land is below zero.
In the last seven days, there have been 257 snowfall records set, and 482 cold records set. Until this is all over, consider this video to be everybody in the United States (with the possible exception of south Florida -- Miami set a record temperature on Sunday):
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