COLUMBUS – A major winter storm blasted Ohio and much of the country with snow, ice, winds and bitterly cold temperatures ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend, paralyzing air travel, closing roadways, knocking out power and creating dangerously cold conditions.
The system, dubbed Winter Storm Elliot, moved across the state late Friday afternoon producing snow, high winds, and freezing temperatures.
Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
Gusty winds were forecast to gradually decrease through Sunday, though blowing and drifting snow were expected to continue for the majority of the state Saturday, especially in west central Ohio and near-whiteout conditions are likely in open rural areas at times.
An additional 1-2 inches of snow is possible in portions of the state, notably western and west central Ohio.
Wind gusts Saturday were expected to peak between the 30’s in the south and the 40’s in northern Ohio with wind chills below minus 20 degrees for the entire state, a modest improvement from the -30’s to near -40 experienced over the preceding 36 hours.
On Christmas day, low temperatures were expected to be near zero and high temperatures to be in the low teens for most of the state, the low 20’s for southeast Ohio.
Wind chills for Christmas Day will still be in the negative teens for the most of the state.
Roughly 1,500 Ohio Department of Transportation plows are being deployed at any given time and 3,000 employees assigned to snow and ice operations in 12-hour shifts until the weather passes and roads are cleared, department officials said, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Crews are mixing salt with additives to make it more effective because regular salt is much less effective when temperatures drop below 20 degrees.
Authorities say drivers can expect conditions to be passable, but not perfect and they should plan that trips will take longer than usual.
There were numerous temporary road closures as a result of jackknifed semis trucks, downed power lines and crashes, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported.
On the Ohio Turnpike, four died in a massive pileup involving some 50 vehicles.
Some roadways were expected to be closed for an extended period of time.
Since 8:00 a.m. Thursday, troopers handled over 300 crashes and assisted over 1, 200 motorists, the patrol reported.
A utility worker in Ohio was also killed Friday while trying to restore power, according to the Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative. It said the 22-year-old died in “an electrical contact incident” near Pedro in Lawrence County.
More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday.
The National Weather Service says its warning map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”
More than 4,600 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Friday.
Power outages left about 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark.
Blinding blizzards, freezing rain and frigid cold also knocked out power from Maine to Seattle, while a major electricity grid operator warned the 65 million people it serves across the eastern U.S. that rolling blackouts might be required.
Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection said power plants are having difficulty operating in the frigid weather and has asked residents in 13 states, including Ohio, to refrain from unnecessary use of electricity.
AEP Ohio is asked customers in Franklin County to reduce electrical usage until 10:00 a.m. Sunday “to help ensure adequate power supply.”