More heavy rain and severe weather

SOUTH -

The combination of severe thunderstorms and flooding rain will threaten areas from Central Texas to the Lower Mississippi River Valley today.

In addition, gusty winds will complicate matters over much of the South as the area of low pressure strengthens.

The thunderstorms will evolve into a squall late tonight into tomorrow with damaging winds and hail becoming the primary threats, although a few tornadoes may still be possible.

Locally heavy rain will also be a threat tomorrow and tomorrow night, but rainfall intensity is not expected to be quite as great as today and tonight.

By Thursday, all that will be left of this system in the South will be some isolated storms over the Florida Peninsula.

More rain is expected to move into the region over the weekend: Saturday in Oklahoma, and Sunday from the Rio Grande to the Virginia Coast.

Highs today will range from around 50 in North Central Texas to the 80s in Deep South Texas and much of the Florida Peninsula.

Highs tomorrow will range from around 50 in northwestern Tennessee to the 80s in the Rio Grande Valley, the Florida Peninsula and the Georgia and southern South Carolina Coast.

Midwest -

Heavy rain will inundate parts of the Ohio Valley over the next 36 hours, where five or more inches of rain is possible through Wednesday evening.

Flooding will be a concern with rivers already near bank full from heavy rains and snow melt over the last couple of months.

Rain should wrap up by Wednesday evening, with some lingering snows near the Great Lakes on Thursday.

A pair of weak systems will bring a chance of rain and snow over the region late week and over the weekend.

Highs today will range from the 30s in the Upper Mississippi Valley and near the western Great Lakes to the 60s in the Ohio Valley.

Highs tomorrow will range from the 20s in northwestern North Dakota to the 60s in the Central Plains and eastern Kentucky.

Northeast -

Rain and snow will begin to move into the interior Northeast today.

As the system in the Central U.S. approaches tomorrow, rain will increase in intensity especially over western Pennsylvania.

Snow in the mountains will change to rain, with snow and a wintry mix possible in Northern New England.

Precipitation will change over to snow late Wednesday night into Thursday, with some lingering snow showers near the Great Lakes on Thursday and Friday.

The weekend should be mostly dry, with a few showers near the Mason-Dixon Line.

Highs today will range from the 30s in northern Maine and northern New York State to the 60s in western West Virginia.

Highs tomorrow will range from the 30s in Northern New England and northern New York State to around 70 on the Delmarva Peninsula.

West -

A persistent westerly wind will continue to pump moisture into the Pacific Northwest, and keep the chances of rain and mountain snow going all the way through the weekend.

Snow levels are expected to stay around 3000 feet over the next couple of days in the Cascades.

The Southwest should remain dry through the weekend with warmer than average temperatures.

Highs today and tomorrow will range from around 30 near Yellowstone National Park to the 80s in the Lower Colorado River Valley.

Highs will approach 90 in southwestern Arizona tomorrow.

Source

Drivers Advised To Stay Off Roads

MILWAUKEE -- Sub-zero temperatures and high winds caused hazardous driving conditions statewide. The Wisconsin Emergency Management Center said motorists are urged to stay off the roads unless travel is necessary.

Because of the very cold temperatures, road salt will not be effective on icy roads.According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, most roads in the southern part of the state are ice covered and slippery.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department urged drivers to be cautious of the icy road conditions. Police said they responded to nearly two-dozen spinouts overnight.

In Dane County, Wisconsin State Patrol shut down Interstate 39/90 near Stoughton in both directions this morning because of an accident involving a car and semi.

The Wisconsin State Patrol says it has cleared the crash, however, the highway is still icy, and traffic back-ups should be expected.

This is the same area where hundreds of motorists were stranded last week during a traffic backup amid heavy snowfall.

The Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said all roads are experiencing extreme drifting, particularly the north-south roads.

No roads in Sheboygan County have been closed. The sheriff's department recommends if anyone needs to travel, he or she should try to stay on state highways as they may be in better condition than the secondary roads, have a cell phone, ample fuel, extra clothing and possibly even food to care for oneself in the event a person should become stuck.

For winter road conditions, check the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Web site.

100-vehicle pileup shuts Ontario highway

More than 100 cars were involved in massive pileups Sunday as sudden whiteouts turned sections of highways north of Toronto into parking lots of twisted metal, trapping several people in their vehicles in bitter cold. Dozens of people were injured in the crashes, but no one was killed, in part, because poor visibility had slowed drivers down, police said. Many also credited the driver of a tractor trailer who swerved his rig off the road at the last minute to avoid slamming into stopped cars.

“It looked like a wrecking yard – all the vehicles everywhere, in the ditch, everything,” Constable David Woodford of the Ontario Provincial Police said about the pileups, among the worst in the province's history in terms of the number of vehicles involved.

The vast majority of the accidents occurred on icy Highway 400 south of Barrie just after noon. The largest collision involved 37 vehicles and sent 29 people to hospital; another had 30 cars. In addition, about a dozen vehicles crashed on Highway 404 south of Aurora. Parts of both highways were closed for hours.

Glenn Wright, the tractor-trailer driver credited as being a hero, said if he hadn't reacted quickly and veered off into the ditch, the scene could have been much worse.

“I had to do it. There's no question. There's no other options, either go in here [the ditch] or hit that guy,” he told A-Channel news of his defensive driving.

Lori Ayres, who was driving in front of Mr. Wright, couldn't be more thankful. “If he hadn't gotten off, he would have hit us all and it could have been a bigger mess than it is already,” she told the news station, her voice shaking. “I went over and thanked him. I said ‘Thank God, you saved my life.' Because if he had kept going straight … it would have been over.”

Constable Woodford described the accidents as “a chain-reaction type of thing.”

“All of the sudden, a snow squall comes through, a band of snow flurries comes through this area, and we had zero visibility – like you couldn't see in front of you – and it only takes one person to slam on their brakes and lose control and the next thing you know everybody's running into each other,” he said.

Emergency vehicles were delayed in reaching the Highway 400 collisions due to reduced visibility and backed-up traffic. Firefighters cut away the centre steel median to allow cruisers and ambulances through and to redirect vehicles that weren't involved in the crashes. Air ambulances hovered in the area as a precautionary measure; paramedics, police and firefighters came from all over the region.

Constable Woodford, who lives near the site of the largest accident, was one of the first police officers on the scene and ran from car to car checking people's injuries. He invited some into his cruiser to keep warm.

“They're panicking. The first thing they're worried about is someone else going to run into the back of them,” he said. “We had numerous people trapped, they couldn't get out, injured, the whole bit.”

Hernan Burgos, who lives about 100 metres from the highway, was heading home from church when he saw about 20 tow trucks and an ambulance bus zip by. When he arrived on the scene, he said people were shaken up, but relatively calm.

“A lot of people were thankful that nothing big happened,” said Mr. Burgos, a 43-year-old computer consultant who said the area has been the site of previous accidents. “… There were little pieces of cars everywhere.”

People kept warm in buses before being taken to two makeshift collision reporting centres where tow truck drivers brought damaged vehicles and police took reports. People bonded over cups of coffee while waiting, telling stories about their ordeals.

A woman named Alyssa told Global TV she was “very lucky, very lucky” to have come through the crash unscathed. “I want to go. I still have a four-hour drive to do. My toes feel like they're going to fall off. I'm kind of frustrated,” she said while waiting.

Snowplows and salt trucks cleared the highway and transport workers repaired the median before the highway was to reopen Sunday night.

The area is known for accidents due to poor winter visibility: In March, 2007, some 75 cars, trucks, semi-trailers and buses slammed into each other in two massive chain-reaction crashes blamed on blowing snow and high winds.

Sunday's pileups occurred as a blast of bitter weather brought reminders of winter's wrath. The frigid, windy weather – morning temperatures in Toronto dipped as low as –13 and the wind chill made it feel like –25 – came as a shock in a winter that has been unseasonably warm.

“It feels cold because of the winds, but it's way away from record temperatures,” said André Cyr, an Environment Canada forecaster. “It's nothing unusual because we didn't see very much over the last few years, but we're back into kind of a normal winter and that's what the normal winter looks like.”

Indeed, Torontonians have become accustomed to warmer-than-usual winters; the record high temperature for Jan. 20 was set in 2006 when it reached 11.4 degrees. The record cold temperature for the day was in 1939, when it was –23.3. So far this month, the high temperature was 15.5 on Jan. 8. The low was just a few days earlier on Jan. 3, when the temperature was –7.7.

For the second time this month, the city issued an extreme cold weather alert Saturday to activate extra services for the homeless, including 80 more shelter beds, three additional patrol vans and extended shelter hours. Forty-two people made use of the extra beds. Alerts are called when the forecast low is –15 or colder; the forecast overnight low of –14 was deemed close enough because of the strong winds. The last alert was called on Jan. 1.

The forecast for the rest of the week is for slightly warmer weather, with highs ranging between –6 and –1. Environment Canada is predicting that the rest of the winter will be above normal in Southern Ontario. As well Sunday, New York State police said heavy snowfall and accidents north of Syracuse forced the closing of Interstate Route 81, which runs south from the Thousand Islands Bridge in Eastern Ontario.Source

Rain Leads To Multiple Crashes Across Central Florida

The rainy weather Thursday morning has already been dangerous on Central Florida roadways. Before 4 a.m, the Florida Highway Patrol told News 13 it had already received eight emergency calls.

A seven-vehicle crash on Interstate 4 near Fairbanks involved a jackknifed tractor-trailer and closed both sides of the interstate early Thursday morning.

The semi was traveling in the westbound lane of I-4 around 1:30 a.m. Thursday when it hydroplaned, went out of control, jackknifed and ran into the center median. The impact of the crash caused several pieces of the concrete wall to fly across the eastbound side of I-4, hitting six cars.

None of the drivers were injured, but all of their cars had to be towed.

The driver of the semi is also uninjured. However, 300 gallons of his load of diesel fuel was spilled in the accident. An environmental assessment agency was called in to take a look at the damage because anytime more than 50 gallons is spilled it is considered an environmental hazard. The agency will return later in the day to take samples of the soil, because of concerns that that fuel could contaminate the groundwater in the area.

Another crash snarled traffic on Interstate 95 this morning in Brevard County, this time in Port St. John.

Authorities said a tractor-trailer crashed into a construction truck. Both drivers were hurt and were hospitalized. The driver of the tractor-trailer is in critical condition. The driver of the construction truck suffered minor injuries.

There was also a serious crash with entrapment on the Turnpike northbound near I-4. It was cleared up by 6:30 a.m., but there were four mile backups.

As the morning continued, so did the accidents. As of 8:30 a.m., two lanes of I-4 were closed westbound near the Central Florida Parkway, one lane was blocked on I-4 between Lee Road and Maitland, there was a blockage on Kirkman Road near I-4 and the Beachline approaching S.R. 436 was experiencing major delays.

A coastal flood watch has been issued for Flagler County. The National Weather Service says the surf will be rough off the coast today. Right now waves are breaking at around 4 to 6 feet. Minor beach erosion and rip currents are possible on Thursday.Source