Winter storm returns to US east coast as snow disrupts travel across region

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/21/winter-storm-us-east-coast-freeze-snow

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A fast-moving cold front will plunge the US mid-west into a deep freeze on Tuesday and dump up to 30cm (1ft) of snow on parts of the east coast, forecasters said. 

In Washington, federal government offices were closed, the Office of Personnel Management said in an early morning email. There was no snow reported in the capital at the start of the morning rush-hour. 

Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 flights across the US had been cancelled by early on Tuesday, according to tracking service Flight Aware. 

The cold front will send temperatures below freezing as far south as northern Florida. The high in and around Minnesota and the St Lawrence Valley will not top 0F (-18C) during Tuesday's daylight hours, forecaster AccuWeather said. 

"Travel conditions will deteriorate with slippery roads and flight delays expected to unfold even in areas that avoid heavy snow," AccuWeather said. 

The cold front across the eastern half of the country could drop up to 5cm (2ins) of snow from the Dakotas to the Ohio Valley. The snow will increase as the cold air picks up moisture near the Atlantic coast, AccuWeather said. 

The mountains of Virginia and West Virginia will likely get up to 15cm (6 inches) of snow. Other sites near the mid-Atlantic and south-eastern New England coast could get 15 to 30cm (6-12ins) until late on Tuesday. 

For parts of the region, the snow could be the heaviest of the winter. Washington could see the most snow since January 2011, when about 12.7 cm (5ins) fell, AccuWeather said. 

Baltimore officials, expecting up to 25cm (10ins) of snow in central and southern Maryland, issued a code blue alert for potentially dangerous conditions, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. 

Philadelphia was expecting 12-25cm (5-10ins) of snow, with wind chills in the Poconos mountains dipping down to an icy -4F (-20C), according to local CBS News station KYW-TV. 

The National Weather Service said the cold air would produce snow downwind from the Great Lakes. 

The polar front will be something of a repeat of the cold snap that gripped much of the US at the start of the year, when cold and snow snarled air and road travel, shattered temperature records and contributed to at least nine deaths. 

In the middle of the cold front on Monday, Grand Marais, Minnesota, recorded -17F (-27C), the lowest temperature in the US outside Alaska, the weather service said.