Drivers skid and crash as wintry mix grips central US before moving east

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Road conditions were deteriorating Saturday in the central U.S. as a winter storm brought a mix of snow, ice and plunging temperatures, with forecasts calling for the dreaded combo to spread eastward in the coming days.

“Winter returned,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually stays penned up around the North Pole, spinning like a top. But sometimes it escapes or stretches down to the U.S., Europe or Asia — and that’s when large numbers of people experience intense doses of cold.

Studies show a fast-warming Arctic gets some of the blame for the increase in polar vortex stretching or wandering.

By Saturday evening, widespread heavy snow was likely between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70. Part of the interstate was closed in central Kansas by the afternoon. Total snow and sleet accumulations for parts of Kansas and northern Missouri were predicted to be as high as 14 inches (35.6 centimeters).

The storm was forecast to move then into the Ohio Valley, with severe travel disruptions expected. It will reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday into Monday, with a hard freeze even expected as far south as Florida.

Severe thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornadoes and hail, were also possible ahead of the storm system’s cold front as it crosses the Lower Mississippi Valley, the National Weather Service warned.

Parts of upstate New York saw 3 feet (0.9 meters) or more of snow from a lake effect event expected to last until late Sunday afternoon.

A fire truck, several tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles overturned west of Salina, Kansas. Rigs also jackknifed and went into ditches, state Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said.

He posted a video showing his boots sliding across the highway blacktop like an ice-skating rink.

“We are in it now," Gardner said as he drove to the scene of an accident. Online, he begged for prayers and warned that some roadways were nearly impassable.

Freezing rain in Wichita, Kansas, sent authorities to multiple crashes in the morning, and police urged drivers to stay home if possible and watch out for emergency vehicles.

Governors in neighboring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency. Whiteout conditions threatened to make driving dangerous to impossible, forecasters warned, and heighten the risk of becoming stranded.

“Please stay off the roads. Crews are seeing too many vehicles out and sliding off,” Missouri's transportation department said on the social platform X.

The Kansas City International Airport temporarily halted flight operations in the afternoon due to ice. Dozens of flights were delayed, including a charter jet transporting the Kansas City Chiefs, before the runways reopened.

“Work will continue overnight to keep the airfield clear,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a message on X.

Stores in Wichita were filled with shoppers stocking up on groceries in advance of the storm, and warming centers opened in churches and libraries.

Several businesses closed across the Kansas City area, and the school district in suburban Independence, Missouri, said it might need to cancel classes for one or more days.

“Get where you’re going now & stay put. If you must travel, consider packing a bag & staying where you’re headed," the Missouri Department of Transportation said in a message on X.

The agency warned Friday that a shortage of workers could hamper the ability to clear roads.

In Columbus, Ohio, crews treated major roadways with anti-icing liquids.

“It will be a major headache,” said Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather. “The storm not only has the snow threat to it but the ice threat.”

Power outages could be significant particularly south of the Kansas City area, Kines said.

Starting Monday the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling cold and wind chills, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) below normal as the polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic.

In Chicago on Saturday, temperatures hovered in the teens (minus 7-10 Celsius) and around zero in Minneapolis (minus 18 C), while dropping to 14 below (minus 25 C) in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday evening ahead of the storm and encouraged residents to vote early on Saturday ahead of the state's special elections Tuesday in a statement on X.

Similar declarations were issued in Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and multiple cities in central Illinois.

“This is the real deal,” meteorologist John Gordon said at a press conference in Louisville, Kentucky. “Are the weather people blowing this out of proportion? No.”

Officials in Annapolis asked residents to remove vehicles from emergency snow routes. The historic state capital near the Chesapeake Bay also announced plans to open several garages Sunday for free parking.

The National Weather Service predicted 8 to 12 inches (about 20 to 30 centimeters) of snow for the Annapolis area, with temperatures remaining below freezing throughout the weekend.

In Baltimore, an extreme weather alert was issued instructing agencies to provide shelter and assistance for those in need. City officials said wind chills were expected to dip to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (-10.56 degrees Celsius) overnight Saturday and remain in the teens through Tuesday.

In Louisiana, crews were racing to find a manatee that was spotted in Lake Pontchartrain before the cold temperatures hit. The manatee was first seen New Year’s Eve in the Mandeville area.

While manatees are common in the area during the summer, winter sightings are a concern since they can begin to experience cold stress symptoms when the temperature falls below 68 degrees (20 Celsius).

“We are doing everything we can to get our hands on this animal,” said Gabriella Harlamert, stranding and rehab coordinator for Audubon Aquarium Rescue in New Orleans.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland. Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

More winter weather blows into Lowville, New York on Saturday, January 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

A snowplow passes through Lowville, New York, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

In a photo released by the Kansas Highway Patrol, a car is wedged between two trucks during icy weather Saturday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Salina, Kansas. (Kansas Highway Patrol via AP)

FILE - A leaf is frozen in the ice of a garden pond during cold weather in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - Steve Beckett with the street department in Owensboro, Ky., sprays a salt brine solution along Hickman Avenue in preparation for predicted snow and ice over the weekend, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. (Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the largest prosecution in Justice Department history — with reams of evidence, harrowing videos and hundreds of convictions of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Now Donald Trump's return to power has thrown into question the future of the more than 1,500 federal cases brought over the last four years.

Jan. 6 trials, guilty pleas and sentencings have continued chugging along in Washington's federal court despite Trump's promise to pardon rioters, whom he has called “political prisoners" and “hostages” he contends were treated too harshly.

Here's a look at where the prosecutions stand on the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot and what could happen next:

More than 1,500 people across the U.S. have been charged with federal crimes related to the deadly riot. Hundreds of people who did not engage in destruction or violence were charged only with misdemeanor offenses for entering the Capitol illegally. Others were charged with felony offenses, including assault for beating police officers. Leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys extremist groups were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as plots to use violence to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

About 250 people have been convicted of crimes by a judge or a jury after a trial. Only two people were acquitted of all charges by judges after bench trials. No jury has fully acquitted a Capitol riot defendant. At least 1,020 others had pleaded guilty as of Jan. 1.

More than 1,000 rioters have already been sentenced, with over 700 receiving at least some time behind bars. The rest were given some combination of probation, community service, home detention or fines.

The longest sentence, 22 years, went to former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy along with three lieutenants. A California man with a history of political violence got 20 years in prison for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other makeshift weapons during the riot. And Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy and other offenses.

More than 100 Jan. 6 defendants are scheduled to stand trial in 2025, while at least 168 riot defendants are set to be sentenced this year.

Authorities have continued making new arrests since Trump's election victory. That includes people accused of assaulting police officers who were defending the Capitol.

Citing Trump's promise of pardons, several defendants have sought to have their cases delayed — with little success.

In denying one such request, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, wrote: "This Court recently had the occasion to discuss what effect the speculative possibility of a presidential pardon has on the timetable for a pending criminal matter. In short: little to none."

One defendant who convinced a judge to postpone his trial, William Pope, told the court that the “American people gave President Trump a mandate to carry out the agenda he campaigned on, which includes ending the January 6 prosecutions and pardoning those who exercised First Amendment rights at the Capitol.” Pope has now asked the judge to allow him to travel to Washington to attend Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

Trump embraced the Jan. 6 rioters on the campaign trial, downplaying the violence that was broadcast on live TV and has been documented extensively through video, testimony and other evidence in the federal cases.

Trump has vowed to begin issuing pardons of Jan. 6 rioters on his first day in office. He has said he will look at individuals on a case-by-case basis, but he has not explained how he will decide who receives such relief.

He has said there may be “some exceptions" — if “somebody was radical, crazy." But he has not ruled out pardons for people convicted of serious crimes, like assaulting police officers. When confronted in a recent NBC News interview about the dozens of people who have pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement, Trump responded: “Because they had no choice."

Many judges in Washington's federal court have condemned the depiction of the rioters as “political prisoners," and some have raised alarm about the potential pardons.

"No matter what ultimately becomes of the Capital Riots cases already concluded and still pending, the true story of what happened on January 6, 2021 will never change," Judge Lamberth recently said in a statement when handing down a sentence.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, has said it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if Trump hands out mass pardons to rioters.

In another case, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta alluded to the prospect of a pardon for Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder convicted of seditious conspiracy.

“The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved of his actions is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country,” said Mehta, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Follow the AP's coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.

FILE - Violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump, including Kevin Seefried, center, holding a Confederate battle flag, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - Supporters of President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - A flag hangs between broken windows after then-President Donald Trump supporters tried to break through police barriers outside the U.S. Capitol, Jan 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

FILE - Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)