A major winter storm hit a large portion of the central United States on Friday, knocking out power, threatening wheat crops, causing traffic problems, and likely affecting the last shopping weekend before the Christmas holiday as it moved eastward towards the northeastern United States. Snow was falling from the north-central state of Minnesota to the northeastern state of Connecticut, with ice and freezing rain in northern Indiana, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service (NWS) said heavy snow and freezing rain would continue through midmorning in Illinois and Indiana. The NWS also said more than 15 centimeters of snow would fall in much of New York state and in Connecticut and Massachusetts in a 12-hour period on Friday. The storm has left 161,000 customers without electricity in Indiana, 47,000 in Illinois, and 15,000 in Ohio. Utility companies said outages likely would increase as the storm moves toward the Atlantic coast. In the north-central state of Wisconsin, more than 20 centimeters of snow had fallen by Friday morning. Milwaukee's airport was closed because snowplows on the runways could not keep pace with the heavy snow. More than 300 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and ahead of the storm, more than 500 were canceled at New York City airports. Fears of damage to winter-wheat crops have supported wheat prices this week, though prices were lower on Friday amid profit taking and a stronger U.S. dollar.
