NASHVILLE (AP) — A winter storm blanketed parts of the South with snow, freezing rain and sleet Thursday, tying up roads in Tennessee and Kentucky as the system tracked a path through Appalachia toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
The storm began hitting greater Nashville on Thursday morning. About 4 to 6 inches had fallen across a large swath of Middle Tennessee by early afternoon, with snow possibly continuing for a few more hours, said National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Unger in Nashville. Freezing rain and sleet coated areas around the Tennessee-Alabama state border, Unger said.
Authorities urged people to travel only when necessary, as Metro Nashville Police reported accidents and other driving woes that snarled and slowed several roads. Police in the city reported dozens of wrecks on the road by the early afternoon. A section of Interstate 40 was plugged up due to a tractor trailer fuel spill crash, according to police, just one of the issues bottlenecking interstates in the city.
Along the Kentucky border, authorities in Montgomery County, Tennessee, were dealing with dozens of crashes as well, including a wreck that killed one person involving a commercial vehicle on Interstate 24, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Bill Miller.
Tennessee Department of Transportation regional spokesperson Rebekah Hammonds tweeted Thursday that the agency is "clearing as much as we can but issues will continue as snow continues to fall and temps drop."
With temperatures expected to plummet overnight, everything on the ground is going to freeze and create treacherous road conditions Friday, Unger said.
Schools around the region canceled classes, including a closure through Friday for Nashville's public school students. Gov. Bill Lee, meanwhile, closed state offices across Tennessee, and Nashville International Airport reported plenty of canceled and delayed flights.
The storm also hit Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, where school systems canceled classes and municipal courts were closed, while crews were monitoring conditions of city streets. Snow began falling mid-morning, after freezing rain and sleet fell on the city earlier in the day. Some flights were likewise canceled at Memphis International Airport.
Snow was falling in Kentucky, where some areas had already received more than a half-foot by early afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Ron Steve said.
The largest snowfall so far was 7 to 8 inches around Elizabethtown. Lexington had 4 to 5 inches, he said. Far western Kentucky had about 3 inches, and snowfall was tapering off.
In Elizabethtown, officials said a pileup of 20 to 30 cars in snowy conditions Thursday afternoon closed both lanes of the Western Kentucky Parkway. And both lanes of U.S. Route 25 in southcentral Kentucky were temporarily blocked by multiple crashes, state police said.
First lady Jill Biden, meanwhile, had to cancel her trip planned for Thursday to view damage from last month's tornado in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The storm presented an expected boon to the ski industry in West Virginia, where up to 9 inches of snow was forecast. Three of the state's four major downhill ski resorts had suspended on-slope operations earlier this week due to warmer conditions. Now the activity was picking back up.
"West Virginia can't wait to welcome travelers to our snow-capped mountains this winter," said Chelsea Ruby, secretary of the state's Department of Tourism.
The storm's path could create further headaches as it swirls through the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.
The Washington and Baltimore areas, parts of central and southern Maryland, and portions of northern Virginia should expect 2 to 4 inches of snow overnight Thursday into Friday morning, with isolated high amounts up to 6 inches, the National Weather Service said.
From late Thursday through Friday afternoon, 4 to 7 inches of snow were expected in parts of central and southern New Hampshire, and south-central and southwest Maine, according to the weather service. The highest amounts are expected along the coast. The steadiest snow will be expected during the morning commute Friday before tapering off.
Across the country, meanwhile, North Dakota was getting its own dose of winter weather.
Dangerously cold temperatures enveloping the state have pushed wind chill readings down to minus 59 degrees in Bowbells, the county seat of Burke County in northwestern North Dakota.
Mandan was at minus 45 and Bismarck at 41 below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
___
Associated Press writers John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; and Beth Campbell in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.