Spring snowstorm grounds flights, snarls traffic across northern states, 6 dead

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By NATHANIEL HERNANDEZ

Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) – More snow fell across the northern states Thursday as a deadly storm that already had grounded hundreds of flights, postponed a baseball game and disappointed those longing for the warmth of spring moved eastward.

A jet trying to land at Traverse City, Mich., skidded 50 feet off a runway in the heavy snow early Thursday. The plane remained upright, and the 46 passengers and three crew members were unhurt, Pinnacle Airlines spokesman Phil Reed said.

Six deaths elsewhere were blamed on the slick conditions.

The worst of the storm blew into the Northeast, where the National Weather Service posted a winter storm warnings Thursday for much northern New England, forecasting up to a foot of snow through Friday in some areas.

In Vermont, Mount Snow, a ski area that had already closed for the season, decided to reopen for the weekend after getting 5 inches of new snow by midday Thursday.

“Better late than never,” said Mount Snow spokesman Chris Lenois. “There’s no bare spots on the mountain. I’m looking out my window and it’s all white.”

Forecasters expected up to 10 inches in parts of New Hampshire. Up to 8 inches were expected in central Maine, already hit once this month with a storm that knocked out power across the state.

Parts of the Midwest got more than 9 inches of snow Wednesday and Thursday, with another inch or more expected as the snow tapered off during the day.

“I think we are all cranky about the weather,” said Pat Rowe, spokeswoman for Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport, which had delays and cancelations Wednesday.

In Chicago, more than 550 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport because of poor visibility on Wednesday, though operations were mostly back to normal Thursday, said city aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham.

Milwaukee broke a snowfall record for the date with 7 inches; the previous record of 3.2 inches was recorded in 1997. The town of Taylor, in west-central Wisconsin, had 9.5 inches. North Dakota and South Dakota got about 7 inches of snow.

“It’s kind of flying sideways,” hardware store owner Harvey Neu said in Menomonee Falls, Wis. “It’s not like a gently falling snowfall. It’s more of a get-out-of-my-face type of thing.”

Wednesday’s Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs game had to be postponed because of the storm. Last weekend, heavy snow wiped out scheduled Mariners-Indians games for four straight days at Cleveland. The Indians moved their home stand against the Angels to Milwaukee’s enclosed field.

In Minnesota, slick roads apparently caused a pileup involving at least 70 vehicles along Highway 169 just southwest of Minneapolis. At least two people were seriously injured, the State Patrol said. Six people were killed in two separate accidents in Iowa, including a woman and her two children whose minivan collided with another minivan in the state’s south-central region.

As a precaution Thursday, 177 snow removal trucks hit Chicago’s streets in anticipation of rush-hour traffic, according to Matt Smith, a spokesman for the city’s streets and sanitation department.

Snow this late is not that unusual, said weather service meteorologist Andrew Krein in Chicago.

“Typically every few years we’ll get some snow in April,” Krein said. “Snow in April is not unheard of.”