Why should the Fibs and Okies have all the fun? Send it up here where it's needed! :letitsnow:
The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for the Dallas area to Chicago through noon Friday. Up to 12 inches of snow is possible in some portions of northern Oklahoma and eastern Kansas. Others could see ice accumulations of more than an inch.
As heavy snow, strong winds and freezing rain bore down on Oklahoma, forecasters issued a rare blizzard warning for portions of the state. Most schools and all non-essential state offices closed.
The storm, which has roared through the Northwest and the Rockies, forced the cancellation of 200 flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and closed schools in some areas.
The precipitation and freezing temperatures glazed roads in much of the Panhandle, South Plains and Red River Valley.
As much as 7 inches of snow fell overnight in parts of the Texas Panhandle, and it snowed as far west as El Paso.
Up to 12 inches of snow is expected in northern sections of Oklahoma this evening before the storm moves into Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas.
As it rolls east, the storm is expected to dump up to a foot of snow Friday in some parts of Illinois.
Residents of Illinois, which had steady rain and some sleet Thursday morning, braced for the storm to hit tonight and Friday.
"It looks like it's going to get messy," said Tim Halbach, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. "There could be times where some areas see 2 inches of snow per hour."
The severe weather came in back-to-back storms, said Mike July of the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
"We're going to get hit with a double-whammy," he said.
The first storm swept through Kansas on Wednesday afternoon, on the heels of near-record high temperatures earlier in the week. It dumped half an inch of ice on tree limbs and power lines in eastern Kansas, contributing to a fatal car accident on the Kansas Turnpike and raising concerns of power outages.
The second system was moving northeast from Oklahoma this afternoon on the way to Illinois.
Icy conditions were a factor in the death of a 24-year-old woman whose vehicle hit another vehicle in the first storm Wednesday in a construction zone on the turnpike just east of Topeka, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.
More snow and icy temperatures descended on Colorado as cold air moved in behind the storm, which dropped up to 2 feet of snow on the mountains. The plummeting mercury made for icy conditions on Colorado highways for the evening commute.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Chicago Forecast
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05FireCat600SP
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:35 pm
About a foot on the ground down here in Franklin WI. Hard to tell cause it's blowing so bad. When I drove in to work this morning (late cause our office was closed earlier), there were cars getting stuck on flat asphalt trying to go in a straight line on the interstates. 
That said, this would be bad news for the north to get this right now. We need things to freeze up better first before the snow dumps up there. Patience!
That said, this would be bad news for the north to get this right now. We need things to freeze up better first before the snow dumps up there. Patience!
