Snow, ice and slush slam eastern US

Weather forecasters warned of severe cold and dangerous driving conditions as freezing rain, sleet and snow delivered a sloppy winter mix from Virginia and Maryland through southeastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey on Sunday and into early Monday morning.

The slow-moving storm prompted officials in Virginia and parts of Maryland to urge residents to stay off the roads and forced scattered airport delays and cancellations.

The system, which made its way east from the middle of the country, was blamed as a factor in deaths of drivers in Texas and Oklahoma, with the cold snap catching the usually warmer South and West off guard.  

Four homeless men have been found dead of hypothermia in the San Francisco Bay Area since Thanksgiving, where 30 degree lows broke records for this time of year. Three of the victims died in the same garage.

And cold, snowy weather kept the Midwest in its grip Sunday, contributing to numerous multicar accidents in southeastern Wisconsin on Sunday, including a fatal rollover on Interstate 94 near Racine.

Up to 5 inches of snow is forecast to fall in southern and eastern Wisconsin by Monday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) expects the wet and cold to stick around for another day on the East Coast.

“From the Mid-Atlantic states northward into New England, a mixed bag of snow, sleet and freezing rain is expected through Monday,” according to the NWS, which is mapping and tracking the storm.

On Sunday a band of snow moved into Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania, dumping 3 to 6 inches in the Philadelphia area.

The storm hit Sunday football too, with snow so heavy in Philadelphia that yard markers at Lincoln Financial Field were completely obscured during the Eagles' game against the Detroit Lions.  

Other parts of Pennsylvania saw 1 to 3 inches of snow before the precipitation changed to sleet and freezing rain Sunday night and into Monday.

A motorist who got out of his car after a minor crash on the turnpike near Morgantown, Pa., was struck and killed as part of a 50-car fender bender that closed westbound lanes as snow fell, according to turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo.

The turnpike reported several other crashes that snarled stretches of the toll road Sunday afternoon.

Traffic on sections of Interstate 95 in and around Philadelphia was at a standstill most of Sunday afternoon because of accidents and slippery conditions.

Cars on the highway from the Delaware to the New Jersey moved at a crawl most of the afternoon.

Scattered delays affected airports near the nation's capital, with runways needing maintenance against the icy blast at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday afternoon. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had plow crews standing by.

Maryland state officials asked motorists to stay at home while bands of heavy snow move across the state.

A state Highway Administration spokeswoman said snow was heavier than forecast and falling at a rate of an inch per hour in some parts of Maryland.

Baltimore officials canceled the mayor's annual Christmas parade on Sunday because of snow and dangerous road conditions.

In Virginia, freezing rain and sleet coated tree limbs and power lines throughout most of the state on Sunday morning, with the worst concentrated from Richmond to southwestern and western parts of the state.

Officials warned a major ice storm was possible in Virginia's Appalachian region along the busy Interstate 81 corridor.

Paul Jones, 24, a youth hockey coach from Warminster in the Philadelphia suburbs, was on his way to a game in Lancaster, Pa., when he got stuck on the turnpike.

The roadway was "snow covered, slick," he said in an interview from the car, where he was a passenger and had been at a standstill for more than an hour.  

"People are in and out" of their vehicles, he said. "Kids are having a snowball fight on the side of the road, making snow angels. People are walking their dogs."

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press