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Messy winter weather system affects more than 85 million Americans

Winter Weather Massachusetts
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From the Rockies to New England, an expansive system is dumping snow and creating an ice storm that brought dangerous conditions from Arkansas through Ohio.

The messy winter storm turned deadly, prompting treacherous road conditions as more than 85 million Americans are under winter weather warnings or advisories Friday.

Trucks and cars were at a standstill in northwest Kentucky. Near Houston, Texas, at least ten vehicles were involved in a pile-up after skidding across an icy roadway, making a travel nightmare for drivers near San Antonio.

A woman there said she was stuck on an interstate for more than 12 hours as police declared the road "not drivable." As of Friday afternoon, ice-covered and downed power lines left more than 300,000 customers without electricity. Nearly half of those outages were reported in Tennessee.

In New Mexico, authorities say two people died in weather-related crashes as more than three feet of snow piled up. In Alabama, one person was killed after the storm spun up a likely tornado, leaving several others injured. Forecasters say the severe weather there was on the warm side of the winter storm.  

In Memphis, a doorbell camera captured the moment a tree limb snapped under the weight of the ice. The National Weather Service is encouraging people to stay home as officials reported crash-after-crash on interstates. 

New York City and Boston are under a winter weather advisory until 7 p.m. tonight for freezing rain and sleet. Both cities were hit hard by heavy snow during last week's powerful nor'easter and could experience ice piling up to a tenth of an inch.

This story was originally published by Maura Sirianni of Newsy.