Northern Ohio gets pummeled by snow, cold

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A dangerous winter storm that could persist until midweek pummeled northern Ohio on Monday with snow and blew strong winds across Lake Erie that made the temperature feel like zero degrees.

Winds gusting to 45 mph made accumulations uneven, but some areas received 6 inches of new snow, causing hazardous driving conditions.

The National Weather Service said parts of northeast Ohio could receive 2 feet or more of additional snow by tonight.

Kevin McMickens, 48, a cabbie waiting for a fare in Cleveland, said road conditions had doubled the time to the airport to 30 minutes.

The blast meant an extended weekend for students at hundreds of schools across the region. Some schools have used their allotment of three snow days, and any more time off must be made up.

That’s the situation in which Crestwood schools northeast of Akron found themselves: no more available under a new state law that trimmed “calamity days” from five to three.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said a pair of weather- related crashes killed three people Sunday. One wreck was in Northeast Ohio’s Ashtabula County; the other was in central Ohio’s Licking County.

Painesville, located along the Interstate 90 snow belt northeast of Cleveland, caught a break: bands of snow off Lake Erie blew east and west of the city.