INDIANAPOLIS (AP)- The biggest snowfall of what had been a largely snow-free winter for central and southern Indiana moved across the area on Tuesday, causing traffic to snarl and prompting many schools to close early.
About five to six inches of snow had fallen in the central Indiana area by the time the snow ended about 6 p.m., Sally Pavlow, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said.
The snow made driving treacherous, and crashes caused several portions of Interstate 69 from Muncie to Noblesville and a part of I-70 in the Indianapolis area to be closed. Along with school closings, many high school girls' sectional basketball games scheduled for Tuesday night were postponed.
The dry and powdery snow fell as temperatures hovered in the low double digits after morning lows near or below zero.
As darkness fell, the heaviest snow was moving out of Indiana into southwest Ohio after traveling in a band along I-74 from the Crawfordsville area in western Indiana to Greensburg in southeastern Indiana. Winds were forecast at 10 mph or less through the night, and Pavlow said some drifting was possible.
"It's pretty much over for now," Pavlow said.
Five inches of snow was reported at International Indianapolis Airport, and amounts varied from less than an inch in Linton, west of Bloomington, to 3.8 inches in Terre Haute and 6 inches in Perkinsville in Madison County.
There were so many accidents that some interstates in the Indianapolis area remained virtually impassable about 6:30 p.m., state police said.
A multivehicle pileup and a jackknifed semitrailer prompted the closure of I-70 just east of Indianapolis, police said. Several crashes in the Pendleton area led to lane closures, and I-69 was closed because of several crashes. I-70 was closed near Terre Haute, and I-65 near Lafayette had several accidents, including a state police car being struck, a state police spokesman said. The officer was not injured.
Flights out of Indianapolis International Airport were also delayed.
Slightly warmer - though still below normal - temperatures were forecast across the state for Wednesday. Temperatures in South Bend were expected to reach 16 degrees on Wednesday after being in the single digits for four days, while highs in central Indiana were forecast in the low 20s.
Temperatures in South Bend reached 5 degrees on Tuesday, still warmer than Monday, when the high for the day hit 4 degrees - the lowest high temperature ever on Feb. 5. The low Monday of 8 below tied a record set in 1979.
Many schools in northern Indiana canceled classes Monday and Tuesday because of the frigid temperatures. The Fort Wayne school district had problems Monday with buses stalling or not starting, so it canceled classes Tuesday while crews worked to fix the problems.
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