Snow, sleet and freezing rain made a mess of Texas on Monday — part of a deadly winter weather pattern that threatened a 2,000-mile stretch of the country from California to the Carolinas.
More than 1,100 flights were canceled at the Dallas airports and more than 700 schools were forced to close, with authorities warning that roads were dangerously slick. Thunder and lightning accompanied the wintry mix, and a driver was killed, The Weather Channel reported. In another accident likely due to ice, a semitrailer driver escaped safely after his rig partially slid off a highway bridge – leaving his vehicle perilously dangling about 20 feet above a creek, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
Winter storm alerts were posted in 14 states. Forecasters called for snow from the Four Corners region of the Southwest to Arkansas, plus sleet and freezing rain in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
By Monday night and Tuesday, a wintry mix is possible for Georgia and South Carolina, and snow for both Carolinas, The Weather Channel reported.
Meanwhile, parts of Tennessee faced a flood advisory as temperatures rose and melted the snow and ice that persisted there last week.
The frigid weather also claimed at least 27 lives in the state, and more than 34,000 homes and businesses were still without power on Monday.
As the South wrestled with ice, the North dealt with the latest blast of brutal cold.
Record lows for the date were set in Cleveland, at 5 degrees below zero, and Flint, Michigan, at 17 below, and Erie, Pennsylvania, at minus 7. Minneapolis, at 11 below, touched its lowest temperature of the winter.
As the South wrestled with ice, the North dealt with the latest blast of brutal cold.
In the Northeast, which enjoyed a relatively mild Sunday, temperatures started to fall again, and records were in danger on Tuesday.
New York is expected to drop to 2 degrees on Tuesday morning, Chicago to 5 degrees and Burlington, Vermont, to 13 below. From the Rockies east, the cold weather is expected to persist through late this week, The Weather Channel reported.
— Elisha Fieldstadt, Miranda Leitsinger and Alexander Smith