MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Winter weather - millions of Americans are under winter weather advisories today as a storm continues to swirl its way across the center of the country. NPR's Liz Baker reports.
LIZ BAKER, BYLINE: In Cincinnati, it was almost a storm for the record books - 6.4 inches of snow, just shy of the record - still a lot, especially if, like Willie Attaway, it's your job to shovel it.
WILLIE ATTAWAY: Being truthful, I wasn't prepared for it.
BAKER: Attaway works for a property manager, a job that takes him all over the city, a tough task in this weather.
ATTAWAY: I got stuck about three or four times in the snow.
BAKER: And he's not even dealing with the worst of it. In Kansas, some folks got over a foot.
STEPHEN KORANDA, BYLINE: What do we need to check first?
ELDON KORANDA: The oil.
BAKER: In Kansas City, KCUR reporter Stephen Koranda is teaching his first-grader, Eldon, how to run the snowblower.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOWBLOWER SPUTTERING)
KORANDA: All right, he's off. He's snow blowing. That's too fast.
BAKER: Zach Taylor is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center, where he watched the band of heavy snow march from Kansas to D.C.
ZACH TAYLOR: Just south of that heavy snow band, there was a band of heavy freezing rain and ice, upwards of a half inch of ice accumulation, which is enough to cause power outages and bring down trees and did result in considerable and widespread hazardous driving conditions.
BAKER: The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported over 300 vehicle crashes and at least one fatality during the height of the storm yesterday, and air travel across the region has been disrupted. But for those with nowhere to go and no work and no school...
MICHAEL LIPIN: We're going to start. Get your balls ready.
BAKER: ...It's a chance to play in the snow.
LIPIN: By this I pronounce the beginning of the Meridian Chill. Charge.
BAKER: At Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C., hundreds of snowballs fly through the air again for the first time since the last snowmageddon (ph). Or was that one the snowpocalypse (ph)? Anyway...
LIPIN: It's been a decade, so we're here to recreate some of the magic from 10 years ago.
BAKER: Michael Lipin is one of the organizers of this D.C. snowball fight. He says usually they'd head to the National Mall for something like this but not on this snowy January 6.
LIPIN: The Mall has got a lot of security right now. You know, it's not the right time for the National Mall.
BAKER: But they might get another shot at it. With cold temperatures and another round of winter weather sweeping through the south in a few days, so far, 2025 is a good year for snowball fights. Liz Baker, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE PIANO GUYS' "LET IT SNOW / WINTER WONDERLAND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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