Storm set to dump heavy snow on parts of Northeast
The storm caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights, along with classes and major court cases Monday.
The weather system moved slowly eastward overnight through the Ohio Valley into Pennsylvania and western New York state. It then proceeded to New England, where residents had celebrated the New England Patriots' Super Bowl victory, days after a massive storm brought from 1 to 3 feet of snow to some areas.
The heaviest snowfall is expected throughout the day Monday, with some areas getting as much as 14 inches, before the system clears out over the Atlantic Ocean.
"Snow will fall heavy at times overnight from Michigan to New York State, including Detroit and Buffalo," said AccuWeather.com meteorologist Mike Doll. "Travel conditions will be extremely hazardous along interstates 80 and 90. Snow will change to sleet and freezing rain overnight across central and southeast Pennsylvania."
Four people are known to have died in snowy weather Sunday.
Ohio officials said a Toledo police officer died of an apparent heart attack while shoveling snow in his driveway and the city's 70-year-old mayor was hospitalized after he had a heart attack and his SUV crashed into a pole while he was out checking road conditions.
In Nebraska, a truck driver and a 62-year-old woman died in separate traffic accidents on snowy roads. In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said a 64-year-old man with a history of cardiac problems was found dead in his garage after shoveling snow.
By early Monday, the snow storm had brought 17.5 inches of snow to O'Hare International Airport. It was expected to deepen off the southern New England coast, bringing accumulations of 9 to 16 inches to Boston and nearly as much to Hartford, Providence, southern New Hampshire and Vermont.
"For New Englanders, we're used to this during the winter," said Matt Doody of the National Weather Service, but warned that the morning and evening commutes would be messy.
Snowfall totals in New York state were to vary from 6 to 10 inches in Buffalo and Binghamton and 8 to 14 inches in Albany.
The Philadelphia area could get up to an inch of snow and a little ice before rain washes it away. Forecasters expect about 3 to 5 inches to fall in the Lehigh Valley and 5 to 11 inches in the northern part of Pennsylvania.Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland, could get 4 to 9 inches and Toledo and the northwest part of the state were headed for 3 to 7 inches.
More than 2,300 flights were canceled Monday with about a seventh of them at Boston's Logan Airport. On Sunday, more than 2,000 flights were canceled in the Midwest, the vast majority of which were in or out of Chicago's two airports.
Public officials throughout New England announced parking bans ahead of the storm so crews could keep the roads clear.Hundreds of public schools across the country canceled classes and many parochial schools and colleges did the same.
Two of the country's biggest court cases were delayed by the storm — the murder trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez and jury selection in the federal death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Proceedings were expected to resume Tuesday.
Power outages afffected roughly 10,000 ComEd customers in Illinois on Sunday evening, which had been cut to 5,500 by midnight CST. The weather also cut power to nearly 8,000 homes and businesses in northern Indiana.