Texas winter storm causes travel hindrances and power outages

A winter storm that started in Washington has hit Texas hard on Saturday, causing event cancellations, travel hindrances and power outages.

Almost 50 weekend holiday events had been cancelled or postponed across Texas, including Sunday’s 44th annual Dallas Marathon, which was expected to draw 25,000 runners, many of whom had trained for months. The same weather system also forced the cancellation of the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, which had been expected to include 20,000 competitors.

Four hundred flights remained grounded Sunday at Dallas Fort Worth International airport, according to airport officials, as crews scrambled to clear airport runways.

In Chicago, people started flooding into warming centers Saturday night as wind chills dropped below zero.

Some parts of Illinois were already slammed by a foot of snow, and Chicago would get 1 to 3 inches on Sunday, according to The Weather Channel.

A winter storm has hit Texas, causing event cancellations, travel hindrances and power outages

Residents in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee also woke up to snow and ice on Sunday.

In Virginia, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southard said the storm had the potential to be an “historic ice event.”

Other areas of the US that could expect precipitation in the form of snow or freezing rain Sunday were the Middle Missouri Valley into the Great Lakes, the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, the Mid Atlantic and southern New England, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Mississippi, the Central Gulf Coast and the Tennessee Valley were all expected to dodge snowfall but could experience heavy, cold rain, the NWS predicted.

Residents in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Baltimore were warned to be careful on the roads, as they could be hit by the first major snow accumulation of the season Sunday night. But the snow is expected to change to rain overnight, the Weather Channel reported, making the morning commute a messy one.

In the even colder areas of New England and upstate New York, even a slight snowfall could create Monday morning problems as it changes to freezing rain and slippery sheets of ice, according to The Weather Channel.

The storm is expected to move out to the Atlantic on Monday night, according to the NWS.

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