January 2007 North American ice storm

The 2007 Midwest United States ice storm was a severe ice storm that impacted a large swath of North America, from the Rio Grande Valley to New England starting on January 12, 2007. It has resulted in at least 46 deaths.

The storm developed in the southwest portion of the U.S and quickly developed in the deep south. Frozen precipitation spread across a wide swath from northern Texas north and east to the New England States as arctic air sanked southward and merged with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. Ice storm warnings were in effect for northwestern Arkansas, central Illinois, extreme southeastern Kansas, a large part of Missouri, central and eastern Oklahoma, northern and central Texas as well as portions of Michigan, Indiana and Ontario. Warnings are still in effect for Texas as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Governor of Oklahoma, Brad Henry has declared a state of emergency for the entire state due to the ice storm. The Governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, also declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard. In southwestern Missouri, a local disaster area has been declared. U.S President George W. Bush later declared Oklahoma a federal disaster area.

At least 44 people have already been killed, most of them in traffic accidents, during this winter storm; eight in Missouri, eight in Iowa, three in Texas, four in New York, one in Maine, one in Quebec, one in Ontario, one in Nova Scotia and 17 in Oklahoma. An accident near Elk City, Oklahoma killed seven Mexican occupants who were inside a mini-van when it hit a tractor-trailor during the storm. Another accident near Drummondville, Quebec involving a bus sent 24 American students who came on a ski tour in Quebec. Amtrak service was also shut down across Missouri due to downed trees while over 400 flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were cancelled on Sunday with an additional 100 on Monday.

For the first time in the history of the Big 12 Conference, a conference basketball game was postponed when the Oklahoma State men's team was not able to fly out of either Stillwater or Oklahoma City to make its January 13 game at Nebraska. The conditions struck especially close to home for Oklahoma State, which lost two players and eight other people associated with the university when a small plane crashed in a snowstorm near Byers, Colorado on January 27, 2001. For the second time this season, an NBA game was postponed due to severe winter weather. The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, scheduled to play the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee, were unable to catch a flight out of Oklahoma City. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry's inauguration parade for the Martin Luther King Day festivities was cancelled.

In Oklahoma, about 40,000 customers lost power after the first wave of freezing rain on January 12. After additional waves of ice and sleet, 100,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday afternoon.

As the peak of the storm, a total of 330,000 customers in Missouri are without power, with 312 000 still in the dark as of Tuesday. In Springfield, Missouri alone, about 70,000 were in the dark (with rural areas almost completely without power) with the worst still to come, while in east Missouri and central Illinois, over 110,000 customers were without power, particularly around St. Louis. Some restoration took place that afternoon before the next round of freezing rain develops. Extensive damage to trees and power lines have been reported in Missouri.

About 2 inches of ice and sleet were reported from Texas to Illinois after 3 rounds of freezing rain.

Heavy amounts of ice have also been reported in portions of Lower Michigan, in Southern Ontario from Windsor to Toronto and in New York and New Hampshire. 200 000 homes in Michigan were a one point without power, while 145 000 in New York and New Hampshire also lost electriciy. About 20 000 Hydro One customers in Ontario, especially near Lake Erie shoreline were without power with many more across the province. GO Train service in Toronto as well as flights from Pearson International Airport have been heavily affected on Monday. Ontario Provincial Police reported nearly 500 traffic accidents in the region including one involving a tractor trailer carrying liquid oxygen that slid on its side after a collision in the interchange of Highways 400 and 407

Heavy snows are also fallen across the northwestern quadrant of the storm. Heavy snows have fallen in parts of Utah, Nebraska and Colorado on the 13th and 14th with more eastern areas such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswickbeen affected on the 15th and 16th. Montreal and Sherbrooke, Quebec received just over 8 inches (20 cm) of snow.

The large winter storm was preceded by a period of intense cold across most of the continent. Parts of central and southern California were also affected by the deep freeze and an estimated 75% of the citrus crop have been destroyed by the cold weather

See also

• Winter storms of 2006-07

External links

• from the Springfield, Missouri NWS office
• from the Detroit NWS office
• Summary from the St. Louis NWS office