Winter Storm

At Least One Death Connected To Winter Storm Marching Across US

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At least one death is being blamed on a winter storm that impacted more than a dozen states as it trekked eastward across the United States.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol's central region reported a fatal crash between midnight and 11 a.m. Wednesday. Police in the city of Holts Summit, about 100 miles west of St. Louis, confirmed a young child was killed in a single-engine rollover crash around 7 a.m.

Later in the morning, the highway patrol continued to warn drivers to stay off the roads statewide.

State Of Emergency, Schools Closed Across Parts Of Midwest

The system, named Winter Storm Iliana by The Weather Channel, prompted the governors of Missouri and Kansas to declare states of emergency and shut down schools in Kansas City, Des Moines and Omaha.

The storm brought about 1 to 3 inches of snow to parts of Montana, and up to 6 inches to parts of Kansas, southern Nebraska and Iowa as of Wednesday afternoon.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at airports in Chicago and St. Louis, according to FlightAware.com.

A Parade Of Winter Storms Continues

The system is the second in as many days to impact a wide swath of the U.S., from the West Coast, across the Plains and Midwest, into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Among the hardest hit states is Virginia, where more than 180,000 homes, businesses and other utility customers were without electricity as of about 1:40 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us. Iliana brought freezing rain to the region Wednesday. On Tuesday, Winter Storm Harlow had the Virginia National Guard scrambling to help and led to more than 700 crashes statewide.

You can read our live updates here from that storm.

This week will bring even more winter weather as a parade of winter storms makes its way eastward. Next up is Winter Storm Jett, which is forecast to move from the Pacific into California later this week, bringing a risk of debris flows in areas around Los Angeles burned by recent wildfires.

The weather is part of what our meteorologists call a "kitchen sink" weather pattern delivering everything from snow, ice and flooding to record heat across different parts of the country this week.

"In the meteorological world, it means we are checking the box of multiple major conditions within several days," weather.com senior meteorologist Chris Dolce wrote in this article explaining what we're tracking right now.

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Weather.com staff writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.