December 15, 2005
MSNBC staff and news service reports
ATLANTA - Freezing rain and ice jolted the South on Thursday, closing schools, snarling traffic and knocking out power to about 300,000 customers from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C.
Photo: A school bus passes ice-coated trees Thursday in Roswell, Georgia.
The icy conditions were expected to converge with Midwest snow over the Northeast by late Thursday — creating a double whammy that could come with an additional twist for New York City, where transit workers are threatening to go on strike Friday.
The power outages were caused by ice — up to half an inch thick — that formed on tree limbs and fell onto power lines. About 190,000 were reported without power in western North Carolina and South Carolina’s upstate, 57,000 in the Atlanta area and nearly 50,000 across parts of northeast Georgia.
Ten school systems were closed in Georgia and more than a dozen closed in North Carolina, where mountain communities in the western part of the state were told to expect 1 to 3 inches of snow and sleet.
Atlanta airport delays
The weather also caused delays of more than an hour at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Forecasters expected the temperatures to increase above freezing across much of the region by Thursday afternoon, but then dip back into the 20s overnight.
Counties in western Maryland are expecting significant ice accumulations this afternoon and two-to-five inches of snow before the storm ends. Washington, D.C., saw snowfall by late Thursday morning.
Authorities caution conditions in many areas are going to be miserable and dangerous.
“An icy mix could bring a coating to 1 inch of ice in areas from central Virginia, northeast into lower New England,” the private forecaster AccuWeather said in its report for Thursday. “One other aspect of this winter storm will be gusty winds along the coast. Winds could gust in excess of 35 mph from the Delmarva Peninsula to the Tidewater of Virginia Thursday and along the coast from New Jersey to Cape Cod Thursday night into Friday.”
Forecasters described the system as a major winter storm that could also bring heavy rain, sleet and snow up the coast through Friday.
The low-pressure system moved out of the Mississippi Delta early Thursday and headed northeast. Areas close to the coast were expected to see mostly rain, but it was expected to turn to mixed precipitation and freezing rain away from the coast.
The western portions of Virginia and North Carolina were expected to receive the worst of the freezing rain. Heavy snowfall was predicted for northern New York and Vermont.
Tornado watch in Florida
The storm could also produce severe weather across Florida. Thunderstorms were predicted for the northern part of the state, while forecasters said gusty winds, hail and even an isolated tornado was possible.
A separate system was expected to drop snow over the southern mid-Atlantic states and Ohio Thursday, spreading into southwestern New York and eastern Pennsylvania by late afternoon.
For New York City, the possibility of an ice storm comes as subway and bus workers threaten to strike for the first time in 25 years. Their contract expires at midnight Thursday and the workers vowed to walk out unless pay demands are met.
The bad weather follows bitterly cold temperatures Wednesday across the Northeast.
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