More snow falling as spring blizzard hits southern Plains, slicking roads and snarling travel

More snow falling in Okla., Ark. spring blizzard

OKLAHOMA CITY — More snow fell Sunday as part of a powerful storm blowing through Oklahoma and the southern Plains on the first weekend of spring.

The National Weather Service said there was moderate to heavy snow across northeast Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, with some places reporting 8 to 12 inches of snow. The snow and rain was expected to end later Sunday.

The storm disrupted travel on highways and other roads. Wind was as much a hazard as the snow itself, one trucker said.

Jason Nation, who drives a Werner Enterprises tractor-trailer, took a break Sunday afternoon at a Pilot truck stop along Interstate 44 in Mount Vernon, Mo., in the state’s southwest corner. He said he was on a trip from Laredo, Texas, to northern Missouri.

“When we entered Arkansas (early Sunday) it was really a blizzard,” Nation said. “The wind keeps pushing you to the right.”

Authorities have attributed at least five deaths in four states to the weather. Police in Arlington, Texas, said ice on an interstate caused an accident Sunday involving five vehicles and two 18-wheelers. One of the 18-wheelers fell on another vehicle, killing one person.

The storm came a day after temperatures had reached into the 70s, and forecasters say temperatures should rebound into the 60s as soon as Monday.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation urged people in the eastern part of the state not to travel on the snow-packed and slick roads if they didn’t have to, but said roads in the western part of the state were improving as the weather did.

Authorities reported dozens of wrecks amid heavy snow and high winds, many of them with injuries. Single deaths were reported in Missouri, Kansas and Texas, while Oklahoma reported two traffic fatalities.

The second death in Oklahoma happened Sunday morning, when an SUV slid off a snowy highway east of Marietta, just north of the Red River separating Oklahoma from Texas. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Dixie G. Anderson, 77, of Marietta, suffered fatal injuries when her vehicle hit a tree.

The storm is the third major winter storm to hit Oklahoma in the past three months, including a Christmas Eve blizzard that stranded holiday travelers at airports and on snow-packed highways. Forecasters, though, said that this time temperatures should rebound into the 60s as soon as Monday.