First winter storm forces aquatic bailouts, cuts electricity and creates dangerous travel conditions

CNN
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A high -range storm forced aquatic rescues, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of people and created dangerous travel conditions while affected the Ohio Valley, the Middle Atlantic and the northeast this Thursday.

It is an advance of the activity of the frantic winter storm that is expected for this month. At least two other storms are expected for next week, including one that will affect California this Thursday and that will impact the same regions during the weekend.

The very strong rains on the south, warmer, this Thursday’s storm caused the first emergencies due to sudden floods of the year in eastern parts of Kentucky and Virginia Occidental. Sudden flood emergencies are the most severe level of flood warning and indicate that floods that threaten life are happening.

Emergency services carried out at least 20 aquatic bailouts this Thursday in Kanawha County, in Virginia Occidental, where Charleston is located. Some roads in the county remained impassable due to floods in mid -morning, according to County manager Jeremy Young.

“We cannot sufficiently emphasize that it should not be driven through high waters for any reason,” emergency services urged in Kanawha County through social networks on Thursday morning.

There were also multiple warnings of tornadoes while a severe storm line advanced through Kentucky and entered Western Virginia on Thursday morning. At least one confirmed tornado was generated from these storms near Booneville, in Owsley County, in eastern Kentucky.

More than 90,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity in Ohio, Virginia Occidental, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Thursday due to severe storms and ice.

An icy mixture extended from the center of Virginia to the north of the New York State and parts of New England on Thursday, including in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

Dangerous ice amounts of up to 0.76 centimeters accumulated in parts of Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Western Virginia. It was enough to knock down trees and electric lines – which caused power outages – and turned the trip into something dangerous, almost impossible.

Traffic accidents were reported in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania on Thursday morning in icy chaos.

Two people were injured when a transport ambulance overturned and collided in Schuylkill County, in East Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning, WFMZ reported, the CNN affiliate. Aguanieve and icy rain were falling in the region at that time, according to weather observations.

Delays and flight cancellations also accumulated. More than 500 flights to or from the United States were canceled and 2,800 delayed. Airports in Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and the New York area experienced the biggest problems.

The snow, the aguanieve, the freezing rain and the rain expanded in much of New England on Thursday afternoon after the precipitation ended largely in the southern parts of the northeast.

The precipitation will end completely at night for much of the Northeast, but will persist in the early hours of Friday in the north of New England. It will remain slippery where air temperatures are kept close or below zero degrees.

The in progress is only the first of a period of incredibly active winter storms that is expected along the northern strip of the United States in the next week or two.

The stream current, essentially a river of air in the atmosphere where the storms flow, is blocked in an almost perfect line from west to east, and will continue to channel storms through the northern strip of the lower 48.

New storms will arrive every few days until the stream current moves, something that may not happen until the second half of February.

The next storm will take less than 72 hours to go from coast to coast. It will move to the west coast on Thursday night, will continue through the Rocky Mountains of the North and the Northern Plains on Friday before strengthening on Saturday.

The exact moment of the storm, the type and amount of precipitation could change, but another episode of disruptive frosts for the west and northeast is possible. Some areas will have only more than 24 hours between the moment when the impacts of the first storm end and the problems of the second begin.

The snow will begin early on Saturday on the plains of the north and the upper west. The precipitation will expand as the storm is driven by atmospheric energy to the south and a mixture of frozen rain and rain will extend from Missouri to the central appalaches for Saturday morning, while snow falls on the great lakes.

There could be a dry interval at the beginning of Saturday between the two areas of winter rainfall that includes an area from Chicago to Cleveland. These dry areas will eventually be filled with an ice mixture for the afternoon.

A mixture of frozen rain, Aguanieve and Snow will run out of Penylvania for Saturday night. The same messy mixture will reach the rest of the northeast during the night. There is a little more snow in New England during this weekend storm compared to the storm that is ongoing on Thursday, but some mixtures are likely to continue limiting snow totals.

There are more storms next week for the eastern half of the country as the active pattern continues. The forecast models suggest another high range storm next Tuesday and Wednesday, and another storm around the middle of the month.