Spring not stopping Old Man Winter

Last Updated 11:44 a.m. ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo. A wide-ranging storm is burying thoughts of springtime weather across a number of Midwestern states under a blanket of snow and slush, leaving in its wake dashed Palm Sunday plans, dozens of canceled flights and treacherous roadways as it churns eastward.

The National Weather Service issued storm warnings and advisories for Sunday and Monday for as far east as New Jersey. More than 3 inches of snow was reported by 8 a.m. today at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and more than an inch at Reagan National Airport. The winter-like weather forced the cancellation of more than 500 flights.

"It happened at the worst time for the morning commute," said Heather Sheffield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.

Light rain and snow fell in New Jersey on Monday morning after as the storm dropped 2 to 6 inches in Ohio. Similar accumulations were expected in some areas of Pennsylvania, except for higher elevations like the Laurel Mountains southeast of Pittsburgh, where 6 to 10 inches were forecast. No major problems were reported.

The storm is expected to exit off the coast of New Jersey tonight, but not before leaving as much as 2 to 4 inches in the state, as well as in Delaware, northern Maryland and southern New York.

"It's definitely a wide-hitting system," said Dan Hawblitzel, a weather service meteorologist in suburban Kansas City.

Still, the storm stands to hit Eastern states less severely than it did the Midwest. In central Illinois, Springfield got slammed with a record 17 inches of snow. Several counties in central Indiana declared snow emergencies after getting up to 8 inches.

Officials blamed two deaths in separate crashes on snow-slicked roads. Authorities said Anthony J. Hinthorne, 40, of Topeka, was killed Saturday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash and rollover on the Kansas Turnpike as snow was falling in Shawnee County. In eastern Missouri's Clay County Saturday night, Joshua J. French, 24, of Naperville, Ill., was killed when he lost control of his vehicle on a wet stretch of Interstate 35.

Slick roads were also being blamed for a series of crashes on Interstate 60 north of Indianapolis that sent two people to area hospitals with life-threatening injuries. The Indiana State Police reported late Sunday that two people in a 2012 Subaru were hurt when the driver lost control while coming upon the scene of a previous crash involving a semitrailer. The Subaru hit the tractor-trailer and ended up in a ditch, police said. Authorities said both the driver and the passenger had life-threatening injuries and were taken to area hospitals. An update on their conditions was not immediately available.

Earlier Sunday night, a jack-knifed semi and subsequent fuel leak required a hazardous materials response outside Indianapolis, officials said. The Fishers Department of Fire and Emergency Services said a tractor-trailer was southbound on Interstate 69 when its driver lost control. No one was injured.

To the west, parts of Colorado and northwest Kansas spent Sunday digging out from 10 to 15 inches of snow that were dumped there Saturday. Southwestern Nebraska got up to 7 inches. Winds gusting at speeds of up to 45 mph created snow drifts of 2 to 3 feet in the three states, said Ryan Husted, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Goodland, Kan.

"We have pretty much cleared out. Sunny skies. It's starting to melt a little bit," Husted said Sunday. Transportation officials reopened several closed highways, including a stretch of Interstate 70 spanning from Denver to Colby, Kan.

The storm dumped 7 to 9 inches of snow from eastern Kansas into central Missouri before tapering off Sunday morning, said Hawblitzel.

In the central Missouri town of Columbia, TV station KOMU was briefly evacuated Sunday morning because of high winds and a heavy buildup of snow on the broadcast tower next to the building. And Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced he was cancelling a couple events planned for Monday because of the weather.