A massive 50 car pile-up on an Ohio highway was caused by whiteout conditions and snowy weather brought by the Arctic blast that is wreaking havoc across the U.S. and has already resulted in six deaths.
Multiple people were injured when about 50 vehicles were involved in the huge pileup on Interstate 80 just outside Youngstown in Ohio on Tuesday morning.
Authorities say the snowy conditions resulted in at least two deaths on other Ohio roads on Tuesday in two crashes unrelated to the 50 car pile-up.
The driver of a semitrailer died when he crashed into emergency vehicles on Interstate 70 in Clark County and another driver was killed in a crash on the Ohio Turnpike in Richfield.
It comes a day after four others were killed in various crashes in Michigan and Kansas.
A massive 50 car pile-up on an Ohio highway was caused by whiteout conditions and snowy weather brought by the Arctic blast that is wreaking havoc across the U.S. and has already resulted in six deaths
Multiple people were injured when about 50 vehicles were involved in the huge pileup on Interstate 80 just outside Youngstown in Ohio on Tuesday morning
Seven passengers on a New York City-bound bus also escaped serious injury when it turned on its side on a snow-slicked highway south of Syracuse on Tuesday.
A section of Interstate 90 in Pennsylvania was back open Tuesday after being closed overnight because of jackknifed tractor-trailers.
Snow and cold records fell as the powerful arctic blast that started in Siberia spilled over a big chunk of the eastern half of the U.S., including the normally mild South, on Tuesday.
The quick-moving storm system is affecting about 70 per cent of the U.S., which will experience freezing temperatures this week.
Forecasters said more than 240 million people are under winter warnings, watches and advisories. Much of the snow that was supposed to fall in the Midwest has come down and now it’s time for the record-breaking cold.
The mid-autumn taste of winter brought record single-digit temperatures to Chicago and environs; set snowfall records in Buffalo and Detroit; dusted cars with snow in Memphis, Tennessee; and froze lakes in Minnesota weeks earlier than usual.
The roughly 10 inches of snow in Buffalo and Detroit by Tuesday morning was a record depth for the time of year, weather service records show.
Authorities say the snowy conditions resulted in at least two deaths on other Ohio roads on Tuesday in two crashes unrelated to the 50 car pile-up
Multiple first responders were called in following several pile-ups on Ohio highways on Tuesday as a result of the wintry storms
In Missouri, rescuers responded to a car accident that showed a car dangling from a cliff after the driver lost control on the slippery road. The driver had to be pulled through the windshield to safety
Dwight Green stands aside as Coty Paige and Cornelius McCaley push a car that got stuck in the snow at the corner of Costar Street and Dewey Avenue in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday. Paige and McCaley were on the way to work when they saw the car stuck and pulled over to help the driver out
Cars heading north on Carter Street in Irondequoit, New York, had to drive around a car that got stuck in the road Tuesday morning. Early morning commutes were longer with roads still being cleared after the first snow fall of the season accumulated to over 10 inches since Monday night
Forecasters said more than 240 million people are under winter warnings, watches and advisories. Much of the snow that was supposed to fall in the Midwest has come down and now it’s time for the record-breaking cold. Pictured is a Metra train traveling over burning tracks that were set afire in Chicago on Tuesday
Areas of Vermont and Maine saw similar totals.
‘This is an air mass that’s more typical for the middle of January than mid-November,’ National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Birk said in Chicago, where Tuesday morning’s low of 7 degrees broke the previous record of 8, set in 1986.
‘It is pretty much about the coldest we can be this time of year (and) it could break records all over the region.’
At least six cities in Kansas set new record lows Tuesday, led by Garden City, which dropped to minus 1, breaking the record of 7 set just last year. Records also fell in Wichita, Salina, Russell, Dodge City and Medicine Lodge.
In St. Louis, the mercury dipped to 11 degrees, breaking a record for the date that had stood since 1911.
Warming shelters in Memphis offered relief from a reading of 21 degrees, also a record low for the date.
Schools and businesses as far south as the Gulf Coast states opened late or closed Tuesday because of the unusual cold.
About 20 school systems delayed opening across north Alabama under the threat of wintry precipitation, including all the public schools around Huntsville.
Even more opened late or closed in Tennessee, and a handful of businesses and schools opened late in Georgia.
Forecasters said daytime temperatures would remain in the 30s across a wide area of the South. Freeze warnings reached from eastern Texas to coastal South Carolina, with overnight lows predicted in the 20s.
The dip to 8 degrees in Indianapolis gave the city its earliest recorded fall temperature in the single digits. The closest similar reading was 11 degrees recorded on November 3, 1951.
Farther north, heavy lake-effect snow piled more than 10 inches high near Goshen.
The Eaton County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan said two women, ages 81 and 64, and a 57-year-old man were killed Monday in a two-vehicle crash caused by poor road conditions.
In Kansas, the Highway Patrol said an 8-year-old girl died in a three-vehicle wreck.
Officials in central Wyoming searched for a 16-year-old boy with autism who disappeared Sunday wearing only his pajamas.
In Chicago, a plane landing Monday at O’Hare International Airport slid across the runway. No one was injured. More than 1,000 flights at O’Hare and Midway International Airport were canceled after more than 3 inches of snow fell.
In some areas, the mercury fell quickly. Temperatures in Denver climbed past 70 degrees over the weekend only to fall to 14 degrees early Monday.
Sherry Strickland shovels snow from the steps of a church in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday
Snow mounts on Church Street in Burlington as plows continue to clear the street on Tuesday
Frank and Barbara Pascarelli shovel snow from their driveway in White River Junction, Vermont on Tuesday
This is the terrifying moment an American Airlines plane is seen sliding off the runway at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Monday morning