Winter Storm To Bring Snow And Life-Threatening Chill To U.S., Forecasters Warn

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A long weekend of ferocious winter weather loomed across the U.S. on Saturday, as a continuing wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the nation’s heartland, spread cold and snow from coast to coast and cast a chill over everything ranging from football playoffs to presidential campaigns.

As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast for the U.S. was a crazy quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern Plains, high wind warnings in New Mexico and flood warnings in the mid-Atlantic.

Fallout from the storm included a 100-vehicle stall on Interstate 80 in Iowa, after semitrailers jackknifed on the slippery roadway and blocked traffic. Some cars were stuck in the same spot for five hours as blowing snow encircled the vehicles. Tow trucks had to be brought in to get them off the roadway.

“Many roads are drifted shut,” Sgt. Alex Dinkla of the Iowa State Patrol said. “They (road crews) are working the snow-blowers like crazy to get some roadways open, but they’re actually struggling. The minute they get them open, they’re actually blowing right back shut because of such high winds we’re seeing right now.”

Dinkla said troopers had handled 86 crashes and 535 motorist assists since Friday.

The medical examiner’s office in Portland, Oregon, was investigating a hypothermia death Saturday, as freezing rain and heavy snow fell in a city more accustomed to mild winter rains. Hundreds of people took shelter overnight at warming centers. Meanwhile, high winds knocked large trees onto cars and houses in western Oregon, and tens of thousands of people were without power.

Parts of Montana