The one who does not trust the Lord is like a barren bush “that enjoys no change of season,” states the prophet Jeremiah in this Sunday’s first reading. Much of the country is more than ready for a change of season this week, but Old Man Winter continues to pile it on. Still digging out from up to 3 feet of weekend snow, the mid-Atlantic region was hit hard again at midweek. Other regions are struggling with wintry weather as well.

As a blizzard howled up the East Coast on Wednesday, roads from Baltimore to New York City became treacherous to the point that even plow drivers were ordered off the streets in some areas. In Pennsylvania the governor closed large stretches of three major highways because the second major storm in less than a week was making travel too risky.

Snow fell so hard in Washington that people on the National Mall could not see the Capitol. Many people in the region were still without power from the historic storm over the weekend, and more were expected to lose it during this one. “The snow has just been relentless,” said Washington Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, a D.C. native who said the back-to-back storms are like nothing he has ever experienced.

Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, disrupting air travel and cargo services across the country. All three major airports in the Washington area were closed until crews could clear the snow-clogged runways and visibility improved. “The problem is everything,” said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “The problem is this is day six.”

The Midwest did not escape the misery either. The 12.6 inches of snow that fell on Chicago Tuesday is the highest amount of snow on a February 9 since records have been kept in the area--a record not only for that date but one for any day in February, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 11.5 inches set on February 18, 1908.

Baltimore has already broken the previous record for the snowiest winter--62.5 inches in 1995-96--and Washington was poised to break the record of 54.4 inches set in the winter of 1898-99. “It’s hard to find anything in the history books of these types of storms back-to-back,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik. Forecasters warn that another storm with heavy snow could hit the Northeast by Monday.

Source: Articles by James Barron for the New York Times, Nafeesa Syeed for the Associated Press, and Bob Drogin and Richard Simon for the Los Angeles Times