There is a fast moving storm this week that has dumped several inches of snow across the Upper Midwest, making travel very hard for commuters and adding a few fatalities. The storm dropped 6.5 inches in western Minnesota, while eastern South Dakota got 3 inches.
The storm is now stretching from northern Texas to southern New England with threats of icy rain, sleet and snow later this week in what everyone is hoping to be the last significant snowfall for the East Coast this winter. Governors across Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia and New Jersey have declared states of emergency in advance of the storm.
Temperatures all over the east have plummeted and Boston is just a little bit shy of 2 inches from its all-time snowfall record. Some Bostonians are even hoping for more snow so they can break a record. The city thus far has received 105.5 inches in snow and the record is 107.6 recorded during the 1995-1996 season. “I want the record. We earned the record,” said Erin O’Brien, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Schools from Texas to West Virginia have been closed early through the week and Penn State University canceled classes due to weather, the first time in eight years. Around 1,200 flights have been canceled on Wednesday, including 600 in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth.
In an ironic turn, Congress got pushed to produce a bipartisan agreement in the House and Senate to finish business early and get out of town before up to 8 inches hit the city on Thursday. It has certainly been quite the white winter on the east coast, and only time will tell if the rest of the country will be affected by stormy weather.