Late-winter snowstorm blankets South, Northeast

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

A late-winter storm blanketed the Northeast on Thursday after zipping across much of the South, leaving hundreds of drivers and their passengers stranded on highways in Kentucky and thousands without power in West Virginia.

By Thursday afternoon, a strong cold front moving across the eastern U.S. had dumped more than 20 inches of snow on parts of Kentucky, and conditions worsened in the Northeast as snow started to pile up, reaching 11.5 inches and counting in the northern Maryland community of Lineboro.

The massive snow in Kentucky left hundreds of people stranded on two major highways and National Guard members delivering them food or driving them to warming centers.

Authorities say that hundreds of drivers were stuck on two major highways in Kentucky, where snow totals topped 2 feet in some places. Many had to spend the night in their vehicles.

Officials said more than 400 vehicles were stuck along Interstate 24 between the western Kentucky towns of Cadiz and Eddyville. Gov. Steve Beshear said that 200 were still stuck by midday Thursday. There was an even larger pileup involving some 200 tractor-trailers on Interstate 65 near Elizabethtown in central Kentucky.

Schools, government offices and legislatures in the South and Northeast were shut down for what could be one of the last snow days at the end of a winter that’s been brutal for much of the country.

Most of southern Ohio was under a winter storm warning until at least midday Thursday. The National Weather Service said some parts of the area would have up to a foot of snow accumulation.

Snowfall accumulations exceeded 10 inches in parts of suburban Philadelphia on Thursday, as accidents closed highways in eastern Pennsylvania and flights and trains were canceled. The snow was sure to cause more problems today.

The National Weather Service had winter-storm warnings in effect from Texas to Nantucket, Mass., and the forecast called for record cold temperatures in the same area today.

In western Maryland, a tractor-trailer carrying 93 heads of cattle overturned Thursday on Interstate 81, which already was snarled by other accidents in the Hagerstown area.

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at Weather Bell Analytics, said cities including Waco, Texas, Chicago, Memphis, Tenn., and Cleveland should expect record cold this morning.

In some cases, the old records could be obliterated.

In Memphis, for example, the coldest temperature on record for March 6 is 20 degrees. The forecast is calling for a low of 11. And at northern Virginia’s Dulles Airport, a forecast low of 7 would shatter the record of 15.

“This is amazing for early March,” he said of the forecast.

The storm knocked out power to 85,000 homes and businesses in West Virginia on Thursday.