Salt
trucks rumbled and traffic jammed as a massive new storm brought snow,
freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures to a large swath of the
United States on Monday.
"It's
dangerously cold," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told CNN's "The
Situation Room," warning that the nation's capital was bracing for up to
8 inches of snow. And federal government offices in the area will be closed on Tuesday.
But the snow isn't the only thing to worry about.
"We
are going to see high snowfall amounts, but the ice is what is going to
be the big story," CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray said, pointing at
North Carolina.
Raleigh, North
Carolina, could see up to a half-inch of ice, which could knock out
power and "makes travel nearly impossible," she said.
The
bitter cold is coming from several fronts. This weekend, the Northeast
weathered its fourth snowstorm in three weeks, and extremely low
temperatures are predicted to hang around for two more weeks.
A winter storm stretching across the Midwest and Southeast is bringing freezing rain and ice accumulation, especially from Arkansas to Tennessee.
Late Monday, Tennessee declared a state of emergency as road conditions quickly deteriorated and power outages spiked.
Temperatures across the
eastern half of the United States will be below average for the entire
week, and that's a big deal as winter fatigue sets in.
In
Boston, where 95 inches of snow have already been recorded this year,
the latest storm was expected to skirt by and bring a few more inches,
Gray said.
This February is the city's snowiest month ever.
Frank Ippolito, the owner of a snow removal business operating in Boston, said his staff was weary from lack of sleep.
At
this point, his snowplow drivers are putting snow "anywhere and
everywhere there's an open piece of land that won't obstruct the view
safely of the driver or prevent someone from getting out of a doorway or
moving a car," he said.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said one man died after suffering a heart attack while shoveling snow.
"Please stay close to your home today -- shovel in short stints," he said.
Mounting "snow rage" is pitting drivers and neighbors against each other as the winter weather shows no sign of letting up, CNN affiliate WFXT reported.
"We've
been noticing a little frustration out there on the roads,"
Massachusetts State Police trooper Kathryn Downey said. "I think people
are getting pushed to their limits."
Margo
Souza of Charlestown, Massachusetts, told CNN's iReport she was trying
to take the snow in stride, even though it has doubled her commute. Her
golden retrievers, Logan and Copley, love to bound around in it.
Margo
Souza and her pup, Logan, overlooked the Boston Harbor Monday morning.
The snow is taller than Logan and the top layer of the bay is frozen.
Still,
she said she was hoping her city's baseball team might bring something
with them when they head south for spring training.
"Send the snow to Florida," she said, "along with the Red Sox equipment."
One New York resident, Max Guliani, posted photos on Twitter of the frozen fountain at Bryant Park in New York City.
A pipe burst at the city's iconic Empire State Building, forcing one of its observatories to shut down, a spokeswoman said.
In Ithaca, in upstate New York, temperatures have gotten so cold that even the city's tourism website is telling people to head to the Sunshine State.
"That's it. We surrender," the website says. "Winter, you win. Key West anyone?"
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