weather.com meteorologists
A New Year's storm spread snow and ice from Texas into the interior Northeast around New Year's Day, causing hundreds of accidents from Missouri to Illinois.
The low pressure system, named Winter Storm John by The Weather Channel, took an unusual path from deep South Texas almost due northward through Texas and Oklahoma before taking a right and pushing across the southern Great Lakes and eventually through New England.
The storm started in Texas's Big Bend Region, where it dumped up to two feet of snow near Alpine, Texas on Dec. 30, 2020.
Parts of western Texas picked up over 8 inches of snow. Big Spring, about 35 miles east-northeast of Midland, reported 14 inches of snow. Up to 2 feet of snow was reported in parts of Big Bend National Park. Snow drifts up to 20 inches were reported in Cisco, about 45 miles east of Abilene.
Freezing rain was this storm's legacy in the Central U.S.
Ice accumulation was reported across several states from Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas to Michigan to Pennsylvania over the New Year's holiday, making roads slippery and downing trees and branches.
A 38-year-old man was killed near St. Louis in the first couple of hours of 2021 when he jumped out of his crashed vehicle to warn other drivers of the icy roads, but was then struck by another driver and fell from an overpass.
In Kansas City, hundreds of accidents were reported by state highway patrols, including seven injuries.
Up to one-half inch ice accumulation was reported in Farmington, Illinois, and Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. Accretions as high as 0.75 inches were reported in Missouri.
Over 100,000 power outages were reported from Texas to Pennsylvania on New Years Day, according to poweroutage.us.
Wichita, Kansas, picked up 6.5 inches of snow on Jan. 1, their heaviest calendar-day snowfall since Feb. 4, 2014.
After an evening of freezing rain, precipitation changed to heavy, wet snow in Oklahoma by Friday morning. Snow fell at the rate of 2 inches per hour in Oklahoma City before sunrise Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Will Rogers World Airport reported 5.1 inches of snow. Only the 2009-10 season (14 inches) has started out snowier in the Sooner State capital city than 2020-21.
The storm also produced a tornado in Central Georgia on New Years Day embedded in the storm's trailing cold front.
The winter storm moved eastward out of New England on Jan. 2 after dropping 6-12 inches of snow from northern New York to central Maine.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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