First winter storm of many forces water rescues, striking power out and creating dangerous travel conditions

Cnn
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A far-reaching storm forces water rescues, strikes power and creates dangerous travel conditions when it hits Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Thursday.

It is a preview of the frenetic winter storm activity that will come this month with at least two others expected next week.

Very heavy rain on the southern, warmer side of Thursday’s storm led to the first flash flooding situations of the year in parts of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Flash flooding emergency situations are the most serious level of flooding of flash flooding and indicates that life-threatening floods occur.

“Numerous Hiking Surveys” took place in parts of West Virginia’s Kanawha and Cabell counties, where Charleston and Huntington are located, according to National Weather Service warnings.

“We can’t emphasize enough not to drive through high water for any reason at all,” the first respondents in Kanawha County urged Social media Thursday morning after reporting the crews had been out on “several hiking calls.”

There were also several tornado warnings such as a line of severe thunderstorms that were tracked over Kentucky and into West Virginia on Thursday morning. At least one Confirmed Tornado Spawned from these storms near Boneville, in eastern Kentucky’s Oowsley County.

Power cuts from the ice cream and severe thunderstorms ticked up on Thursday morning. More than 85,000 homes and businesses were without power in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland from 1 p.m. 8 et.

An icy mix stretched from Central Virginia to Upstate New York and parts of New England on Thursday morning – including in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

Dangerous amounts of ice will be built in parts of Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and West Virginia. This amount can weigh trees and power lines – cause power cuts – and make travel dangerous to cross -border impossible.

The ongoing storm created dangerous travel conditions on Wednesday night to Thursday morning as it spread a slurry mess of icy rainfall over large parts of the midwest and parts of the northeast. Traffic accidents were reported in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Flight delays and cancellations also stacked up on Thursday morning. More than 500 flights in or out of the United States were canceled and 1,600 were delayed. Airports in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Boston and New York City area experienced most problems.

Snow, gossip, freezing rain and rain will expand further north and reach much of New England before Thursday afternoon, but southern parts of the northeast will gradually change from an icy mixture to rain when the warmer air arrives.

Precipitation will end in the evening in large parts of northeastern, but killed into the earliest hours on Friday morning in northern New England. It will remain smooth where the air temperatures remain near or during freezing.

The ongoing storm is just the first of an incredibly active stretch of winter storms expected over the northern level of the United States over the next week or two.

The jet stream, essentially, a river of air in the atmosphere that storms flows through, is locked in an almost perfect line from west to east and will continue to storms the northern level of the lower 48.

New storms arrive every few days until the jet stream changes – something that may not happen until the second half of February.

The next storm takes less than 72 hours to go from coast to coast. It will push into the West Coast on Thursday night, track through Northern Rockies and Northern Plains Friday before strengthening Saturday. Saturday to Sunday it quickly spreads a mixture of snow, gossip, freezing rain and rain over an area almost identical to this week’s first storm in the Midwest and northeast.

The exact timing, type and rainfall of the storm still come into focus, but another seizure of disturbing glaze is possible for the midwest and northeast. Some areas will only have just over 24 hours in between when influences from the first storm end and problems from the second begin.

Additional storms are possible next week for the eastern half of the country as the active pattern continues. Forecast models suggest another far -reaching storm next Tuesday and Wednesday, and another storm around the middle of the month.