20 Car Pileup, 44 million Americans Paralyzed by Winter Storm (Videos)

A winter storm brought more ice and freezing rain to a large swath of the central United States on Sunday, creating dangerous driving conditions and power outages from northeast New Mexico to central Illinois during the long holiday weekend.

Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories were in effect for parts of as many as 10 states in the central and Upper Midwest, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm was likely to have the most severe impact in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, where forecasters warned of widespread freezing rain throughout Sunday

As of 3 p.m. CST Sunday, the town of Beaver, Oklahoma has picked up the most in terms of ice accretion with one inch reported.

A quarter to a half inch of ice was forecast for most of Kansas, the Weather Service said. Accumulating ice and high winds would likely snap power lines and tree branches, it warned.

The storm led the National Football League to postpone the start of a playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Kansas City initially scheduled for around noon local time. The teams will now play at 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, when the worst of the bad weather was expected to have passed though the area.

The Missouri Department of Transportation on Sunday morning urged motorists to stay off roads in the Kansas City area as crews worked on making local highways passable.

At least three people died in traffic accidents in the state due to icy conditions, the Missouri Highway Patrol said.

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The Kansas Highway Patrol could not immediately be reached for comment on fatal accidents due to weather conditions.

One person died on Saturday in Oklahoma when a truck crashed on an icy road, according to local media reports. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ice had downed trees and power lines, particularly in northwest Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric on its website reported just over 5,000 customers affected by power outages on Sunday morning.

The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives listed just around 7,100 member-consumers without power. The number of outages in Woodward County in northwest Oklahoma was expected to climb, said Sid Sperry, a spokesman for the cooperative.

The abundant moisture this system has to work with will produce precipitation totals of 2-3” across much of the central U.S. through early next week (rain, freezing rain, and snowfall liquid equivalent combined). This will create a serious flooding threat which may cause disruptions even for areas which won’t be affected by wintery precipitation. 

The heavy rain and storm threat shifts into the Southeast by mid-to-late week, as this period of active weather continues into the second half of January.

Source TheWeatherNetwork.com

Check out more contributions by Jeffery Pritchett ranging from UFO to Bigfoot to Paranormal to Prophecy

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