Dec. 14 (UPI) — An early winter ice storm in the Midwest caused hundreds of accidents on Saturday as parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania hunkered down for a messy wintry mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow.
A section of Interstate 80 in Nebraska was shut down due to freezing rain that began falling late on Friday and coated roadways across the state, causing many spinouts and crashes. The affected highway ran from west of Omaha to Ashland, Neb., according to state police.
Crews worked through the night into Saturday morning in an effort to reopen roads in rural parts of the state, while metro Omaha was also socked by nearly impassible driving conditions.
The city’s police department told WOWT-TV that 556 calls for crashes were phoned in to the 911 emergency operators from 3 p.m. Friday until 1 p.m. Saturday — including 14 minor crashes involving its own cruisers. Another 228 calls to 911 were made reporting other “hazards.”
Officials in Douglas County, Neb., which includes Omaha, said their 911 call centers were “inundated with emergency calls” due to icy road conditions across the county.
“We strongly urge all Douglas County residents to stay home and avoid driving until conditions improve,” they said in a social media post.
The Iowa State Patrol, meanwhile, reported 52 crashes, including eight with personal injuries, from Friday night through noon Saturday.
If the ice storm weren’t enough, forecasters called for dense fog to blanket the Upper Midwest in its wake, making for more poor driving conditions on Sunday.
Further east, winter storm warnings were posted for the West Virginia mountains and southeast slopes of the Appalachians from early Sunday into Sunday evening. A mix of snow accumulations up to 2 inches and ice accumulations up to around 1/4-inch were forecast for the area, along with winds gusting as high as 35 mph.
Rough winter weather, including a mix of snow and freezing rain, was also set to overspread central Pennsylvania Sunday into Monday morning, with many locations seeing snow at the start, followed by freezing rain and finally changing to rain.
Up to 2 inches of snow with a light glaze of ice were predicted for McKean and Warren Counties in the Quaker State.
Forecasters warned that roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will become slick and hazardous while strong winds and ice on tree limbs could cause sporadic power outages.
Once this system exits on Monday, a broad swath of the United States stretching from the central Plains to the Ohio Valley will be subjected to another round of moderate to locally heavy rain as a cold front collides with Gulf of Mexico moisture over the area, according to the National Weather Service.