Powerful winter storm brings wind and snow to central U.S.

A major winter storm expected to bring high winds and heavy snow to a dozen states arrived in the Great Plains Saturday, forcing officials to close the Kansas City, Missouri, airport and an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in Kansas.

Kansas City International Airport was closed for about two hours Saturday while crews worked to clear runways, but flights resumed in the evening, Quinton Lucas, the city's mayor, said on social media.

Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas declared a state of emergency in the state Saturday afternoon, as officials prepared for a worsening storm.

The Kansas City area was under a blizzard warning until 3 a.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which predicted the area would be covered in nine to 14 inches of snow and face wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour.

Traveling could be very difficult, if not impossible, the service said in an update.

The airport closure delayed a Kansas City Chiefs team's flight to Denver by about three hours, but the team was in the air by 5:30 p.m. local time, said Brad Gee, a Kansas City Chiefs spokesman. Chiefs. The Chiefs were scheduled to face the Broncos on Sunday afternoon.

The storm also wreaked havoc on the state's highways.

In a video filmed near an overturned tractor-trailer on Interstate 135 in Kansas and posted to social media, Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said the highway was very, very slippery and the situation was not improving.

Get off the roads, he says. Don't be over them because it's not good and could lead to something really bad. Stay home.

An icy 18-mile stretch of Interstate 70 was closed around 3 p.m. due to crashes and fallout, said Kim Stich, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation. Earlier in the day, another three-mile stretch of the highway was closed and then reopened.

The storm was forecast to intensify in Kansas, then move east along Interstate 70, bringing heavy snow and bitter cold along a swath into the Midwest, then toward the mid-Atlantic.

Several states in the storm's path, including Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia, declared states of emergency in anticipation of its arrival. Cities like Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis treated roads ahead of the storm and prepared warming centers.

Some areas could see their heaviest snowfall in a decade or more, forecasters said Saturday as widespread winter storm warnings went into effect.

The weather service has issued a handful of winter watches, advisories and warnings for areas stretching from eastern Colorado to New Jersey.

It will be a very powerful storm that will affect a fairly large area of ​​the country, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center.

As the storm moves forward, Arctic air is expected to stabilize in its wake, as some of the frigid temperatures of the season are expected to persist for several days.

The governors of Missouri and Indiana put the National Guard on standby in their states, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia declared a state of emergency and urged people to avoid traveling on Sunday.

In Kansas, plows would be deployed throughout Saturday night, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The Forecast Center said some of the most extreme conditions would likely be in locations north of and along the Interstate 70 corridor, which runs through St. Louis and Indianapolis.

The heaviest snowfall will be concentrated south of Chicago, said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.

Moderate lake-effect snowfall could also affect the upper Great Lakes and Lake Erie through Sunday morning, forecasters said.

The Forecast Center also warned of the potential for significant icing in the south-central this weekend. Sleet and freezing rain could wreak havoc across eastern Kansas and the Ozarks, extending east into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys.

That rain will freeze on contact and turn into glazing, that's what sticks to trees, power lines, roads, cars, car windows, everything, Bann said.

The southern Appalachians are also likely to receive icy conditions Sunday and Sunday evening.

There was an increased risk, the second level of five, that severe thunderstorms would form Sunday in parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley and bring lightning, gusty winds, hail and tornadoes.

Sunday through Monday, the storm is poised to cross the Appalachian Mountains and enter the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Washington, D.C. area, as well as Western Maryland, Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

By dawn Monday, snow is expected to fall across the Mid-Atlantic region and persist throughout the day.

The storm comes at a time when the country is on the cusp of what the weather service has called a significant Arctic outbreak.

Temperatures are expected to drop below average in areas east of the Rocky Mountains, down to the Gulf Coast and Florida, with frigid weather lasting through mid-January.

Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.

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