Winter weather blast to bring more snow to Northern states making travel hazardous

A new Arctic blast is set to dump more snow onto the Great Lakes and the Northeast, as winter weather caused transport chaos and left thousands stranded.

Lake-effect snow is still affecting areas downwind of Lake Erie after several punishing days of winter weather and is expected to last through Wednesday.

And the weather will continue with gusto this week: A strong clipper storm — a system that forms in Canada and moves across the Great Lakes into the United States — is set to move in from Quebec on Thursday, bringing heavy snow to Michigan, the National Weather Service said.

Some 5 million people are under winter weather and lake-effect snow warnings across the Great Lakes for Tuesday — including South Bend, Indiana; Muskegon, Michigan; Cleveland; Erie, Pennsylvania, and Syracuse, New York.

By Wednesday, the clipper weather system should bring snow to the interior Northeast and New England, while intensifying snowfall in areas downwind of the Great Lakes. NBC meteorologist Michelle Grossman said early Tuesday that some areas could get 12 inches of snow.

Other areas are feeling with freeze, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below seasonal averages in parts of the Ohio Valley, the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast.

In Pennsylvania, homes and vehicles were buried in more than 5 feet of snow, with chaos on the roads.

Police responded to a crash Monday afternoon on Interstate 94, near Hartford, Van Buren County, involving 14 passenger vehicles and three semi-trucks, with one driver suffering critical injuries, Michigan State Police said in a statement.

Aerial views showed a long tailback as the snow continued to fall.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, drivers were pictured on social media digging their cars and driveways out of more than a foot of snow. One video shows a driver in Erie attempting to move a vehicle with several feet of snow on the windshield. A parking lot in Erie County showed dozens of cars buried under so much snow that they could no longer be seen.

Erie Police responded to 92 cases of streets blocked by abandoned cars Monday and urged motorists to stay off the roads.

“If you get stuck, don’t just leave it. Make contact with somebody that can help you get it out. We’re overwhelmed, the tow companies are overwhelmed, that’s why we’re looking at 92 cases today and we’re into the fourth day of this,” Erie Police Chief Daniel Spizarny told NBC affiliate WICU of Erie.

WICU of Erie reported that the weight of snow on a livestock barn’s roof caused it to collapse at a farm in the town of Arkwright, New York, on Monday, killing five cows and injuring 100 others. A lake-effect snow warning is in effect across the area until 7 p.m. ET Tuesday.