Weekly Wrap-Up: Southern Winter Storm Wreaks Havoc, Cuts Power to Hundreds of Thousands

By Michael Kuhne, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

February 27,2015; 10:07PM,EST

 

 

The week kicked off with a heavy snow expanding across areas of the Four Corners states before striking the South with snow and ice, causing treacherous travel from Shreveport, Louisiana, to Memphis, Tennessee.
The early stages of the storm led to school closures, hundreds of flight delays and multiple vehicle accidents across portions of Texas.
Snow-covered roads in Oklahoma shut down I-35 Monday, and a deadly crash ensued Monday night along I-44.
On Wednesday, the storm continued to push eastward from the Southeast to southern Virginia, bringing more ice and snow to the region.
As much as 6 inches of snow fell on parts of northeastern Texas Wednesday as a result of cold air from Canada and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
In some of the hardest-hit areas, hundreds of thousands were without power as the accumulation of snow and ice weighed down power lines. A swath of 6-12 inches of snow fell from far northeastern Texas to western North Carolina.
A gas station in Henderson, North Carolina, suffered severe damage from the heavy snow and ice. (Twitter Photo/Danny Wilkerson)
Duke Energy in North Carolina reported more than 200,000 customers were affected by power outages. The storm's impacts continued to created hazardous travel conditions on Thursday morning.
The city of Charlotte operated under a two-hour delay. Federal agencies in Washington, D.C., operated under a two-hour delay as well as the storm trekked northeast.
Snow blankets Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. (EssdrasMSuarez/EMS Photography @photogravitas)
A record-breaking 8.1 inches of snow fell in Huntsville, Alabama, the second-highest daily snowfall to ever hit the city. In Starkville, Mississippi, more than 2 inches of snow blanketed the town, prompting Mississippi State University to cancel classes for the day. In-state rival University of Mississippi canceled classes and activities Wednesday and Thursday as the storm blasted the area.
Also on Wednesday, a band of snow which spread across areas of the Northeast greatly reduced visibility along I-95 near Bangor, Maine, which resulted in a major pileup.
"A big thump of snow that came in this morning as a storm pushing up from the Carolinas strengthened off the coast of Maine," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
The accident, which involved dozens of vehicles, occurred around rush hour.
"Snow was probably falling at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour and visibility was less than half of a mile," he said.
Meanwhile, the slow-moving storm that brought historic snow to parts of Turkey before unleashing snowfall in the higher elevations from Syria through Jordan and Israel last week led to deadly weather to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Avalanches have closed roads, knocked out power and killed more than 100 people across northern Afghanistan according to the Associated Press.
The threat for additional avalanches will remain high over the next several days as the storm departs and warm air leads to an unstable snowpack across the region.
Several AccuWeather.com meteorologists and staff writers contributed content to this article.