Early Snow Dusts Chicago as Mercury Plunges Across the Midwest and Plains

Snow fell in Chicago as the mercury plunged 20 degrees below normal in the Midwest and Plains early Wednesday, while cool air mixed with scattered rain over much of the Atlantic Coast and Southern United States.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in Jackson, Ky., after the Kentucky River overflowed onto roads. There were no reports of injuries, the weather service said.

Forecasters also issued a flood watch for the Williamson River and Guyandotte River in West Virginia.

A cold front from New England to the lower Mississippi Valley caused rain and showers and cooler-than-normal temperatures in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, the weather service said. Showers were reported in parts of Florida.

Scattered showers and gusty winds chilled parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio, with freezing temperatures and light snow in the Nebraska Panhandle.

In the Midwest, temperatures were 15 to 20 degrees below normal, making for a cold, blustery morning, forecasters said.

The Chicago area’s first snow of the season fell about two weeks earlier than normal.

Light snow fell early in the morning at O’Hare International Airport.

“It’s not accumulating. It may be getting the cars a little white . . . but it’s subsiding,” forecaster Frank Wachowski said.

By noon, O’Hare reported 0.2 inches of snow. The weather service said no other Illinois reporting stations had measurable snow.

Temperatures were expected to fall into the 20s overnight in northern Illinois and the low 30s in the rest of the state, Wachowski said.

A freeze advisory was posted Wednesday in parts of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota and the Dakotas. A 17-degree reading was recorded in Bismarck, N.D.

Rain and drizzle doused much of the mid-Atlantic states, with fog sweeping across western Pennsylvania and the northern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Light snow dusted parts of northern Vermont and the morning temperature hovered just above freezing.

Officials said 1 1/2 inches of snow fell overnight in Averill, and one inch fell in Newport before turning to light rain. An inch fell in Canaan, where it changed to a mixture of heavy rain and snow.

“Slick spots on roadways may not be very visible, and they may cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles,” the weather bureau reported.

Patches of light rain fell in south Texas, the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma and south Louisiana. A blast of cold air whipped up winds of 10 to 25 m.p.h.

Snow and snow flurries also persisted in most of eastern Colorado and parts of northern New Mexico, weather officials said.