DALLAS (AP) – A winter storm blamed for at least 11 fatal accidents in the West, Texas and Arkansas threatens to dampen the Thanksgiving holiday for millions of Americans traveling this week.
Nearly 300 American Airlines and American Eagle flights were cancelled in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport yesterday due to the weather, spokeswoman Laura Masvidal said, mirroring disruptions at the air hub a day earlier. Some of the country’s busiest airports – New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and Charlotte, North Carolina – could see big delays.
Icy roads led to hundreds of accidents and at least 11 deaths, half of them in Texas. Yesterday, the storm brought a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain to parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, southern Kansas and Texas. But as the storm continues east, there are fears of heavy rain along the busy Interstate 95 corridor and sleet, freezing rain and snow away from the coast and at higher elevations.
Tom Kines, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, said it will be “primarily a rain event” for the East Coast, with up to three inches of rain dousing travelers.
“The further inland you get – especially as you get into that higher terrain – you are going to deal with frozen precipitation,” Kines said.
Snow could fall in western Pennsylvania and the interior of New England. Up to nine inches could blanket northern parts of West Virginia, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning from this morning through tomorrow afternoon.
