CHICAGO -
Washington was due to be hit by heavy, wet snow on Wednesday as a fierce
snowstorm headed east after blanketing the Midwestern United States, snarling
traffic and causing hundreds of flight cancellations.
The storm was
expected to move eastward over the Ohio Valley and then the central Appalachians
and mid-Atlantic states on Wednesday, hitting Washington with its biggest
snowfall in possibly two years, according to the National Weather
Service.
"It will be a wet, heavy, gloppy snow consistent with wallpaper
paste," said National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro.
The Washington
area was expected to get several inches of snow overnight, with four to six
inches (10 to 15 cm) accumulating by the end of the day on Wednesday, according
to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
In Chicago, where the
National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through midnight,
residents girded for between 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) of snow.