By AccuWeather staff writer
Updated Feb. 19, 2021 2:59 PM EST
As South Central states deal with the fallout of an unprecedented winter storm, the same system that left millions without power crept toward the Northeast on Wednesday night, delivering another round of snowfall through Thursday.
“Yet another area of low pressure had lifted northeastward, into the mid-Atlantic [Wednesday] night and brought deep Gulf moisture northward with it," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio said. "This moisture interacted with an Arctic airmass that is firmly entrenched over the region and significant snow and ice broke out."
Winter weather advisories stretched from eastern Kentucky to Massachusetts by Friday morning with a handful of winter storm warnings splattered across North Carolina into Maryland.
At least 58 deaths have been blamed on the extreme weather across the country over the past week, according to The Associated Press.
Before the storm departed into the Northeast, it left behind enough snow in Little Rock, Arkansas, to tie a record. The snow depth at Little Rock Adams Field at 6 a.m. CST Thursday measured 15 inches, tying the all-time record snow depth for Little Rock set back on Jan. 21, 1918.
Across the northern portion of Alabama, over 100 cars became stuck and abandoned in snow-covered roads around Florence, Alabama, on Thursday morning.
While the storm hasn't sent much snow toward areas like North Carolina, freezing rain -- often a factor in power outages -- brought ice accumulation to some areas of the state. The highest ice reports in central North Carolina were about .15 inches in Forsyth, Guilford and Person counties late Thursday morning. By Thursday evening, parts of North Carolina had seen up to .4 inches of freezing rain.
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Between midnight to 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, the Virginia State Police aided 224 stuck vehicles and responded to 358 traffic crashes. Near Roanoke, Virginia, I-81 Southbound was shut down after a van collided with another truck on Thursday amid icy conditions. About a quarter of an inch of ice accumulation had built up in the area.
By 3:15 p.m. EST on Thursday, snowfall totals across the Northeast were quickly rising with some places seeing up to 10 inches of snowfall.
"The heaviest snowfall accumulations occurred just off to the northwest of the greater Philadelphia area, where there were 10 inches of accumulation reported," Rossio said. "This is due to a very heavy band of snow that broke out this morning that lended to snowfall rates between 2 to 2.5 inches per hour.”
Philadelphia itself had measured 2.8 inches of snow by Thursday afternoon, boosting the city's total winter snowfall to 22.5 inches -- the exact amount of snow that typically falls during an average winter. However, it doesn't seem like this may be the final total as there's the potential for more snow into Friday.
To the north in New York, Central Park saw up to 3.2 inches of snowfall, and La Guardia Airport recorded 3.1 inches.
A city parks worker throws salt from a truck onto a bus stop after several inches of snow fell on the area, followed by sleet and freezing rain, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A compilation of National Weather Service storm reports gathered over the past week, from Feb. 11 to Feb. 18, shows each corner of the continental U.S. was affected by the cold air and series of storms. While North Dakota was the only state that didn't issue spotter reports, the cold still affected the state, breaking at least three different records.
On Feb. 13, Bismarck, North Dakota, saw a record low temperature of 28 degrees below zero, breaking the old record of 27 degrees below zero set back in 1951. Jamestown and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks saw record low maximum temperatures also on Feb. 11.
Throughout the week, over 13,000 snow reports across the nation flooded NWS offices, with other reports consisting of freezing rain, extreme cold and high winds. The total number of reports sits at 17,791.
In addition, at least 2,400 preliminary cold temperature records, including cold maximums and minimums, were either broken or tied at sites with at least 75 years of data from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16, according to the NWS.
However, after more than a week of brutal winter storms, a shift in the weather pattern is forecast to follow over the weekend, bringing not just warmer weather but the potential to thaw out some of the hardest-hit states.
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