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Winter Storm Promises Snowy, Icy Mess for Northeast and Midwest

Boston is on the brink of breaking its snowfall record for one season.
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March is coming in like a lion, with a wintry mess of ice and snow expected to hit the Midwest and the Northeast overnight into Monday, providing little relief from February's cold, which smashed records across the Northeast.

Snow is forecast to fall from Indiana through Pennsylvania into New York and southern New England, with 3 to 5 inches of powder likely, according to The Weather Channel. Southern New England and the northern Mid-Atlantic states were under winter storm warnings and weather advisories, and snow was falling in most of the area, the National Weather Service said. New Jersey and the Delmarva Peninsula were experiencing sleet and freezing rain.

"This does not appear to be a major ice storm," said Jon Erdman, a forecaster for The Weather Channel. But it will likely mean another struggle with slick roads — especially on bridges and overpasses — and sporadic power failures.

Communities in Indiana and Illinois had between 8 and 10 inches of snow by late Sunday, while some areas in Connecticut, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania got 4 to 6 inches, the National Weather Service said.

Boston was on the brink of breaking its snowfall record for one season of 107.6 inches, which was set in the winter of 1995-96, according to New England Cable News. The city needs only 5.7 more inches for 2014-15 to make it into the record books. Much of the snow is in piles, overflowing onto streets, causing officials to worry that the famous St. Patrick's Day Parade might not be able to march through South Boston in mid-March.

Many areas were saying goodbye to the coldest February in their lifetimes, as in New York, where the average monthly temperature was 23.9 degrees — the coldest in more than 80 years, according to NBC New York.

Syracuse, New York, and Bangor, Maine, had not only the coldest February on record, but also the coldest period since the beginning of record-keeping in 1902 and 1925, respectively, according to The Weather Channel.

More than 5,000 arrivals and departures were canceled Sunday at U.S. airports, according to FlightAware.com.

The winter weather likely blew out a transformer in New Jersey, knocking out power to more than 4,500 customers, NBC Philadelphia reported. In Massachusetts, the snow delayed Monday's start to the murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez — which has already had 5.5 snow days, according to NECN.

Meanwhile, parts of the Southwest and the Rockies were bracing for as much as 2 feet of snow beginning Monday night, said Jennifer Lopez, a forecaster for The Weather Channel. Higher elevations west of Denver are expected to be hit the hardest, thanks to a separate system expected to strike the region Monday night, Lopez said.

IN-DEPTH

— Cassandra Vinograd, Miranda Leitsinger and Elisha Fieldstadt