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Wintry weather was an unwelcome sight for many drivers around the country this week

Winter weather impacted hundreds of drivers this week.

Temperatures have fallen, snow has accumulated, ice has stuck and drivers have crashed. As a result, hundreds of drivers from the Northwest to the mid-Atlantic have found themselves, and their vehicles, in places other than their lanes.

The wintry weather is a part of a persistent stormy pattern that could bring more trouble in the coming days from the Rockies to Maine.

In the Northwest, snow began falling on Wednesday near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington and accidents quickly ensued. By Thursday afternoon, all of Interstate 90 was closed at the pass. John Bryant, a public information officer (PIO) for Washington State Patrol, posted on Twitter around 5 p.m. local time that multiple spinouts and collisions were to blame for the shutdown of the westbound lanes.

On Friday morning, multiple accidents on I-90 eastbound closed the lanes once again.

Less than 100 miles away, a multi-car wreck in Olympia temporarily closed three lanes of I-5. According to TheOlympian.com, the accident was reported at 2:16 p.m., local time, on Thursday and included a semi truck.

Another such accident involving a semi truck, which was carrying several cars at the time, occurred in the eastern part of the state in Colfax on Wednesday afternoon.

No injuries were sustained in the spinout, but photos depict the truck teetering over a guard rail, dangerously close to toppling down the hill.

According to Minnesota State Patrol public information officer Lt. Gordon Shank, the accident was one of 155 accidents that occurred in the state on Thursday. The disastrous day included 93 spinouts and resulted in 15 injuries.

According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Gresiak, the Owatonna area saw occasional snow in the morning, between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Air and ground temperatures could have aided to the conditions that led to the major accident.

"The air and ground were very cold and the air temperature was just above zero degrees Fahrenheit, so it may have quickly coated the roads and made them slippery," Gresiak said. "Additionally, at such low temperatures, road treatments like salt do not work as well as they do at temperatures in, say, the 20s."

On Friday morning, between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., Shank reported on Twitter that another 146 accidents and 106 spin-outs had occurred, leading to 18 injuries.

Heavy snow fell throughout Minnesota all day Thursday, as Duluth set a new daily record with 4.1 inches of snow accumulation. According to the National Weather Service, over 3 inches fell in the city before 10 a.m., breaking the previous record which was 2.7 inches.

As the stormy weather traversed across the country, drivers in the East experienced similarly dangerous conditions. In Virginia, numerous accidents and icy conditions forced the closures of major roadways on Friday morning.

An accident in Rockingham County led to lengthy traffic backups around noon. The crash closed all eastbound lanes on VA-253.

In West Virginia, numerous accidents wreaked havoc on I-64 and I-79. Steady rain on Friday morning led to a tractor trailer jackknifing on I-64 near the Huntington-Chesapeake interchange. A separate, two-car crash on I-64 was reported on Friday morning as well.

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