Weather

No heat. Diane Poor, left, and her daughter Kimberly, 11, warm their hands over the kitchen stove. The stove and a fireplace are their only sources of heat this week. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Heidi Rockholm's dragon is one of many snow sculputres on 15th Street in Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

A winter storm that dumped heavy snow throughout Washington made Sunday a good day to stay inside and watch the Super Bowl. Slippery driving kept law enforcement officers and tow trucks busy. "Treacherous conditions, compact snow and ice throughout the state" was the Washington State Patrol's road report. Snowfall ranged from 5 inches in Spokane to 9 inches at Lake Margaret in King County. In Eastern Washington, icy roads, fog and blowing snow made driving hazardous, especially in the Colfax area of Whitman County. More than 200 motorists were stranded in that area early Sunday morning because of hazardous roads. Conditions improved later in the day. Heavy snow and high winds whipping across western Montana prompted authorities to close a portion of Interstate 90 near the Idaho border to emergency travel only. In Spokane, police recorded a small number of scattered accidents Sunday, none involving serious injuries. Plows were out in force and city officials were asking motorists to remove parked vehicles from streets to aid plowing. Icy winds dropped the wind chill factor to 30 below zero Sunday night in Spokane, the National Weather Service reported. Today's forecast calls for clear and cold weather, with a high of 14 degrees and winds gusting to 20 mph.

A heavy snowfall has killed 13 people and 51,000 head of livestock in a high mountain valley inhabited mainly by Tibetans, China Business Times reported Friday. More than three feet of snow has fallen in Shiqu county since the storms began in mid-December, about a month earlier than usual, the newspaper said. Temperatures have plunged as low as minus-40 and even the highs have been below-zero. Shiqu is in Sichuan province 1,000 miles southwest of Beijing. Average elevation in the region is more than 13,000 feet above sea level.

Avalanche danger is increasing in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests because of increasing snowfall and temperatures in the teens to low 20s, Forest Service officials warn. The weather forecast calls for more snow this weekend. In addition, winds are forecast for some areas of the Panhandle, the agency said.

Towing the line. Jesse Main of Rouse's Towing and Recovery pulls a line to an overturned semitruck on Interstate 90 near the Fishtrap exit southwest of Spokane on Wednesday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Treacherous roads. An Idaho state trooper and a firefighter examine the scene of a fatal accident on state Highway 41 Wednesday. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Jerry Pifer tried to paddle his canoe on the flooded Cheat River and almost drowned when the river pitched him overboard. Then he nearly froze while he was stranded in a tree for four hours. "I am tired, but other than that, I'm all right," Pifer said Saturday from Davis Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated for frostbite.

Is this month's big snowstorm in the East a product of global warming? An affirmative answer tends to bring derisive laughter. Nevertheless, it's true. Hard as it may be to believe, blizzards like this one are part of what the experts tell us to expect of a warming climate.

The Winter of '96 whipsawed much of the nation Friday, sending Midwestern temperatures crashing 58 degrees in one Illinois town and melting blizzard snow into flash floods in the East. Several towns in West Virginia were warned to evacuate after the Greenbrier and Potomac rivers jumped their banks. In Keyser, helicopters were used to lift some people to safety, and some residents had to be removed by boat in Parsons when the Cheat River flooded.

An unlucky motorist was stranded in a snowbank on Highway 371 north of Brainerd, Minn., Thursday morning. The area in central Minnesota was hit by 10 inches of snow and high winds. Photo by Associated Press

Near-blizzard conditions whipped heavy snow through the Rockies and northern Plains on Wednesday, stranding hundreds of students in their schools overnight in Nebraska. Teachers and administrators at a high school and middle school in Kearney, Neb., hastily planned a night of food and fun as they rounded up blankets and cots for 300 snowed-in students. Cafeteria staffers were called back to work to fix dinner.

The melting of dirty gray mounds of snow Monday exposed two more challenges for weary city workers: a week's backlog of uncollected garbage and an estimated 20,000 potholes in New York City alone. "Oh man, it's really bad, wham bam," said Sankar Kissraj, 31, a United Parcel Service driver stopped at a light in his truck in midtown Manhattan. "There is a huge pothole at Seventh and 51st Street. When you go over it you really notice it."

Blizzards said to be among the worst in 50 years killed at least 17 people and injured 32, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday. Most of the casualties were caused by traffic accidents, IRNA said. Eight people were killed and 10 injured in one incident when a bus crashed on an icy road near Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.

The third storm in a week made its relentless way eastward Thursday, blanketing the Midwest with snow and sending snow-weary residents scrambling to stock up on supplies. Five inches fell on Pulaski, Ind., and 3 inches fell in the Chicago area as the storm picked up speed. Winter advisories were posted from the Appalachians to the Carolinas and the mid-Atlantic coast, where forecasters predicted either a foot of snow or rain and freezing rain today.

More snow Wednesday and another big storm in the forecast this weekend gave people still struggling with the Blizzard of '96 that oh-no-not-again feeling. A new storm dumped up to 8 inches of snow in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania and a powerful third storm forming over the Plains was expected to bring at least a foot of snow to parts of the East by Friday. "Oh lordy, that worries me," said Tom Bailey, acting director of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, which operates the Folk Art Center in Asheville, N.C.

Stuck in the Atlanta airport is Romulus Staton. Photo by Associated Press

The Blizzard of '96 made front-page headlines across the nation. But many readers in the eye of the storm didn't see them, after the state restricted the travel of newspaper employees. Facing record snowfall in many parts of the state, Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker restricted road travel to "essential" workers Monday in 39 counties. Broadcasters were deemed essential, but newspaper employees weren't.

From the corner diner to the world's largest stock market, businesses throughout the Northeast were shuttered or hobbled Monday by a blizzard that turned bustling cities eerily quiet. Snow fell and winds howled through most of the day, prompting stockbrokers and government bond traders to leave work early and other market participants to stay home. The shortened trading day rippled far beyond the storm's edges.