Cincinnati weather updates: 4 people have died, others injured in auto crashes

Four people have died and many others were injured statewide in weather-related automobile crashes since a winter storm began moving into the Cincinnati region late Thursday night, according to state officials.

Much of the region remains under a winter storm warning and wind chill warning until 7 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.

Counties affected by the warning include Hamilton, Clermont, Butler, Warren and Clinton in Ohio; Boone, Kenton and Campbell in Northern Kentucky; and Dearborn, Ohio, Switzerland, Ripley, Franklin and Union in southeastern Indiana.

The warning also impacts Brown and Highland counties in southern Ohio and Gallatin, Grant, Pendleton and Bracken in Northern Kentucky.

When temperatures rapidly drop below freezing behind a cold front, like they did Thursday evening, wet roads can "flash freeze" to ice. This, combined with blowing snow, creates hazardous driving conditions.

The winter storm that brought a few inches of snow and strong wind gusts was officially categorized as a blizzard Friday.

The requirements for a blizzard – blowing snow with winds of 35 mph or more and reduced visibility for three hours – were met at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport just after midnight through 3 a.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

The airport recorded a 39-degree drop from 44 degrees at 7 p.m. Thursday to 5 degrees at 1 a.m. Friday. CVG has only seen 6-hour temperature drops of 32 degrees or more just nine times since 1948, according to National Weather Service data. A wind chill of 36 degrees below zero was recorded at the airport around 6 a.m. Friday.

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Wind gusts caused power line damage Friday morning. Approximately 15,000 Duke Energy customers in the region lost power due to the storm; power had been returned to about 11,000 customers by noon Friday, spokeswoman Sally Thelen said.

As of 5:40 p.m. Friday, Duke Energy's online outage map was reporting 4,989 customers without power across Greater Cincinnati. Most of those customers were concentrated in Morrow, near Edgewood, Kentucky or an area west of downtown Cincinnati that included parts of West Price Hill and Westwood.

The arctic front, called a bomb cyclone, isn’t out of here yet.

Cincinnati and Ohio road conditions

Crews were sent out across the region Thursday evening to start clearing the roadways of snow and ice.

But rainfall leading up to the drop in temperature Thursday night prevented Ohio Department of Transportation drivers from being able to pretreat roadways, department spokesman Matt Bruning said in a video posted on Twitter. "If you don't have to travel, the best advice is to just stay home."

While the inclement weather persists, ODOT has roughly 1,500 plows out at any given time and 3,000 employees assigned to snow and ice operations.

The Ohio Emergency Management Agency said wind gusts up to 60 mph were also recorded Friday morning, with whiteout conditions, causing vehicle collisions, being reported across the state.

Since 8 a.m. Thursday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol has handled over 300 crashes and assisted over 1,200 motorists, the agency said.

Numerous temporary road closures have resulted from jackknifed commercial trucks, downed power lines and crashes, the state emergency agency said, adding some roads will be closed for an extended period of time.

"Our sympathy goes to those families who have lost a loved one during this severe weather situation in Ohio," Gov. Mike DeWine said. "The road conditions continue to be very dangerous across the state, with whiteouts and extremely cold temperatures continuing. Please continue to remain home if at all possible and be vigilant with these extremely dangerous road conditions.”

Similar incidents have been reported south of the Ohio River, including one in Northern Kentucky on northbound Interstate 71 in Gallatin County, north of Glencoe, that shut down both directions of traffic for hours on Friday due to jackknifed trucks and crashes, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

How much snow did Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky get?

Snow reports into the National Weather Service range between 2 inches to more than 4 inches. A final snowfall total was not yet compiled at the time of this report. The blizzard was the first here since March 2008.

Snow showers tapered off Friday morning, but the wind and blowing snow lingered into the day. The weather service warned of wind chills as low as 20 below zero in some areas could continue into Saturday morning.

Frostbite and hypothermia will occur within minutes if skin is exposed in these conditions.

The week's forecast from the National Weather Service

• Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 14. Wind chill values as low as -19. A west wind around18 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Christmas Eve: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 6. Wind chill values as low as -8. West wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.

• Christmas Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 18. West wind near 11 mph. Sunday night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 7.

• Monday: A chance of snow showers before 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Monday night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16.

• Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 33. Tuesday night: partly cloudy, with a low around 20.

• Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 43. Mostly cloudy in the evening, with a low around 35.

• Thursday, Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52.

Enquirer Media partner Fox 19, Brian Planalp and Ethan Emery contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Winter storm hits Cincinnati: Record temperature drop and strong winds