Northeast Gets Another Helping of Snow, Freezing Rain

Residents in the Northeast received another dose of bad winter weather Friday as a rapidly moving storm produced snow and freezing rain.

“This has been one of the worst winters I have ever spent in New England. I’m moving home to Florida,” said Robin Sparr, 23, a legal secretary in Boston. “I’m sick of snow.”

The latest storm in the East cut across the upper Midwest on Thursday, closing schools in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. It unleashed freezing rain and snow Friday from the Great Lakes to the middle Atlantic Coast and New England.

Back-to-Back Blizzards

The storm marked the third snowfall in the East in nine days, following back-to-back blizzards that shut down a large section of the region surrounding the nation’s capital.

“I don’t like to talk about the weather,” said Mike Cabral, a resident of Cranston, R.I., where light snow began falling at noon Friday. “I have a 70-foot driveway. Not again.”

But at least one Northeast resident seemed pleased to see the latest storm arrive.

“I’m looking forward to it, definitely quite a lot,” said Mary Stevens, 23, of Mansfield, Mass. She grew up in Maine.

“Up in Maine they have a saying,” Stevens said. “If you can’t stand the winter, you don’t deserve the summer.”

Six Inches in Pennsylvania

Up to six inches of snow fell in western Pennsylvania, and along with freezing rain caused scattered power outages near Pittsburgh. The storm also forced officials to briefly shut down Harrisburg International Airport because snow blocked instrument landing system equipment, airport spokesman Ron Jury said.

Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland received from two to three inches of snow, while some locations near Baltimore reported four inches. Two inches of snow also fell in Utica, N.Y., and Syracuse, N.Y.

Winter storm warnings were issued through today for central and southern Maine and New Hampshire.

Gale warnings were issued along the north Atlantic Coast, where tides up to two feet above normal were expected to cause beach erosion.

In western Michigan, up to a foot of snow fell Friday in Mason County. The Automobile Club of Michigan reported numerous accidents on slippery highways, but no serious injuries.

Flights Delayed in Chicago

The storm caused hundreds of flight cancellations and delays Thursday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Winter’s latest assault has been blamed for at least six deaths, including three traffic fatalities in Wisconsin and one in Chicago. In Milwaukee, a 56-year-old woman collapsed and died while shoveling snow Thursday, and a 70-year-old Philadelphia woman whose furnace was not working was found frozen to death in her home.