User:MarioProtIV/Section thing

Mid-February winter storms
From February 11–19, a series of winter storms caused major impacts across the United States, bringing snowfall to a majority of the country and leaving cold temperatures within their wake.

The first winter storm began on February 10, as a low pressure began developing on a stationary front situated just north of the Gulf Coast of the United States. The frontal system drew in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the storm and the low pressure drew in cold air from the north. By 15:00 UTC, light precipitation began to form with the developing low. On February 8, Winter Storm Watches were issued in much of Kentucky and portions of other bordering states for a major freezing rain threat. The next day, watches were expanded into West Virginia and watches in parts of northeastern Kentucky were upgraded to Winter Storm Warnings. Due to potentially heavy freezing rain accretion, Ice Storm Warnings were issued in most of Kentucky and northeastern Arkansas. The next day, winter weather alerts were expanded into the Mid-Atlantic states. In Louisville, road crews and utility workers began preparing for a major ice storm on February 8. The City of Louisville Department of Public Works began preparing for a mass pre-treatment of the roads in the area, getting thousands of tons of salt and brine ready. Over 200 snow and ice removal vehicles were prepared to be treating the roads during the storm. Utility workers began preparing to work for many hours fixing the power due to outages from snow and ice. Two people were killed in car accidents in Kentucky On February 10th, Delta Airlines flight 2231 slid off a taxiway prior to takeoff due to ice accumulations at Pittsburgh International Airport, although there were no casualties. On February 9, 2021, in Cobb County, Georgia, one person was killed due to a pileup on the I-285. 3 other individuals were injured. In Arlington, Texas, the Arlington Police department responded to more than 80 car crashes since 10 p.m. on February 10. On the early morning of February 11, 2021, due to the frigid weather, Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, Texas was icy, which was unusual for the area. As a result, at 6:30 AM CST the first collision occurred when a vehicle skid off the road, which led to several vehicles, including semi-trucks, to pile up on the motorway. Ultimately, 133 cars piled in the incident which left motorists trapped in their vehicles. Six people died and sixty-five people were transported to a local hospital. The National Transportation Safety Board is performing a safety investigation of the crash.

The second storm started as strong east winds from a high pressure system brought cold air from Canada into Washington and Oregon. These winds blowing from the east through the Columbia River Gorge produced well below freezing temperatures in the Portland metropolitan area on President's Day weekend and the days prior. Simultaneously, two systems from the Pacific Ocean were expected to result in snow and freezing rain in the Portland area due to the aforementioned influx of cold, arctic air. The first system arrived on Thursday afternoon, producing snow accumulation in the Olympia, Washington area. In Portland, temperatures were not cold enough to result in much more than a dusting from light snow flurries. Overnight, the second system of moisture arrived and produced steady snow and freezing rain in the Portland area throughout Friday and into Saturday early morning. By Saturday daybreak, Clark County, Washington had received from 7-12 inches of snow. According to Portland National Weather Service, The 6.1 inches of snowfall at the Portland NWS office Feb 12 ties the airport Feb daily record of 6.1 inches set Feb 19, 1993. The event proved to be historic for the Portland area in the month of February. The storm brought light to moderate snow and freezing rain to the Pacific Northwest, which would be compounded by another storm a few days later. The energy from this storm would cause an ice storm of the Mid-Atlantic with the worst affected state being Virginia. 480,000 customers were left without power due to downed trees and power poles. The first ice storm warning ever issued for Richmond, Virginia was due to this storm.

The third storm, and by far the most impactful, occurred from February 13–17. This storm dropped a large swath of heavy snowfall accumulations as far south as Houston, Texas to as far north as Maine. The winter storm resulted in over 170 million Americans being placed under various winter weather alerts across the United States and caused blackouts for over 9.7 million customers, including over 5 million customers in the U.S. and 4.7 million customers in Mexico. The blackouts were the largest ones in the U.S. since another large blackout in 2003. The storm also brought destructive severe weather to Southeastern United States, including several tornadoes. On February 16, there were at least 20 direct fatalities and 13 indirect fatalities attributed to the storm;  by February 18, the death toll had risen to at least 49.

The fourth and final storm....[will fill this later]