Virginia and parts of West Virginia are being buried by a "dense, wet snow," which will continue to travel up the East Coast into New England. TODAY's Al Roker reports from Front Royal, Va.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
A sloppy winter storm swept over the nation?s capital Wednesday, forcing federal offices to close and threatening to dump 4 to 8 inches of snow ? perhaps the heaviest in Washington in two years.
Snow began falling around midnight and later snarled the morning commute. Most school districts in the area were closed as 4,000 salt trucks and plows set out to clear roads through northern Virginia.
A fierce, late-season storm has been pummeling the Midwest, making a snowy mess on sidewalks and highways and creating headaches for air travelers. NBC's John Yang reports.
?It will be a wet, heavy, gloppy snow consistent with wallpaper paste,? National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro said.
More than 600 flights were canceled at Reagan National airport and more than 500 at Washington Dulles.
In Congress, at least 13 committee hearings were postponed because of snow.
The storm originated in Montana and moved east over the Ohio Valley, dropping 6 inches of snow on Chicago?s O?Hare International Airport on Tuesday. More than 1,100 flights were canceled in and out of that city?s two airports on Tuesday, according to NBC Chicago.
In the Chicago suburbs, part of the roof of a banquet hall caved in Tuesday afternoon, and snow poured into one wing of the building. Fire officials in the city of Des Plaines said that the building was empty and no one was hurt.
Illinois banquet hall roof collapses under weight of snow
Meanwhile, a New England coastal storm looked prepared to mix with winter weather over the New York area on Wednesday, leading to a messy concoction of rain and snow that could lead to as much as 2 inches of accumulation in New York City. The system could buffet Sandy-battered portions of the New Jersey coastline, leading to beach erosion and minor to moderate flooding, NBC New York reported.
Residents in the New Jersey towns of Brick and Toms River were issued a voluntary evacuation notice, and residents in low-lying areas were encouraged to move their vehicles to higher ground, according to a statement on the town?s website.
The weather already has already caused accidents. At least 215 car crashes were reported on slick roads in Minnesota on Tuesday, a state public safety official told Reuters.
Power outages were expected in some areas of Virginia on Wednesday as the storm moved in.
?We expect it?s going to have a pretty profound impact on the western and northwestern part of the state,? Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Karl Neddenien said on Tuesday. ?We?re going to do what it takes to get ready for the storm to keep the lights on and, when outages occur, to get them on as quick as we can.?
Reuters contributed to this report.
The latest winter storm is slated to arrive in Boston on Wednesday and continue into Thursday, bringing beach erosion from Maryland to Cape Cod. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.
Related:?
Full coverage from weather.com
This story was originally published on Wed Mar 6, 2013 4:42 AM EST
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