Winter-weary residents of southwestern Pennsylvania braced for yet another round of snow and ice - seriously, Mother Nature, again? - Sunday as a massive storm system swept in from the Midwest, dampening hopes that spring-like weather might finally be near. By Sunday night, the storm covered much of the eastern half of the country, from Iowa to the eastern seaboard and as far north and south as Michigan and Tennessee. Along its path across the upper Rockies and Midwest, the storm left as much as a foot of snow over the weekend, with wind gusts creating drifts of 2 to 3 feet in some states. Just 3 to 5 inches of snow was expected to accumulate across much of southwestern Pennsylvania overnight, with another 1 to 2 falling this morning, according to the National Weather Service in Moon.

Still, local road crews were leaving nothing to chance, said PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi in Pittsburgh. Crews spent Sunday evening pretreating roads with brine and mounting plows back onto trucks. By midnight, when the heaviest accumulation was expected to begin as the main body of the storm moved in from the southwest, the highway department planned to have 70 to 80 trucks out across Allegheny County, Mr. Struzzi said. "It will be our full fleet," he said. "We're ready for battle." Heavy snow was expected to continue through the pre-dawn hours, then lessen as the day progresses. The winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service expires at 11 a.m. today. "The snowfall is going to be lighter, plus with the late March sun coming through the clouds and warming the ground, not much will accumulate after morning even if the snow lingers into the evening," said Brad Rehak, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Moon.

The death toll from a tornado that swept through some 25 villages in eastern Bangladesh, rose to 23 with rescuers finding three more bodies in debris, a day after the deadly storm which also left nearly 500 people injured. The storm which hit the area on Friday, left a trail of destruction in 20 villages of Brahmanbaria sadar, Bijoynagar and Akhaura upazilas. "Three more bodies were recovered today. One of them was Yasmin, who is the mother of two young boys and was found inside the tank of a sanitary latrine," a local journalist at the site said.

A new sinkhole opened up in Seffner, Fla., the same town where a sinkhole swallowed a man. This is at least the third sinkhole in the Florida town in a month

Authorities say a sinkhole has opened between two homes in Seffner and the houses have been evacuated as a precaution.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said the hole was estimated at 8 feet across and 10 feet deep. It opened about 7 p.m. Saturday. Seffner was also the site of a massive sinkhole that swallowed a man in his bedroom, killing him about a month ago.

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Figures released by the Met Office show the UK mean temperature for the 2012/13 winter finishing at 3.31C. This is below the long term 1981-2010 average of 3.83C.

Event Time
2013-03-24 08:13:44 UTC
2013-03-24 20:13:44 UTC+12:00 at epicenter

Location
20.777°S 173.407°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
162km (101mi) NW of Ceva-i-Ra, Fiji
534km (332mi) SW of Nadi, Fiji
603km (375mi) WSW of Suva, Fiji
631km (392mi) ESE of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
639km (397mi) E of We, New Caledonia

Technical Details

Event Time
2013-03-24 04:18:34 UTC
2013-03-24 15:18:34 UTC+11:00 at epicenter

Location
50.718°N 160.155°E depth=9.7km (6.0mi)

Nearby Cities
269km (167mi) ESE of Ozernovskiy, Russia
274km (170mi) SSE of Vilyuchinsk, Russia
278km (173mi) SSE of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia
300km (186mi) SSE of Yelizovo, Russia
2341km (1455mi) NE of Tokyo, Japan

Technical Details

As snow continued to fall throughout the night, City of Edmonton spokeswoman Laura McNabb warned commuters to expect longer-than-usual travel times.

"If the snowfall stopped, it would be far better," McNabb told the Edmonton Journal. "It's a lot of snow. Our guys are doing their best to get the snow off the road and lay down abrasives ... and they're just going to keep at it."

McNabb said the entire city fleet, consisting of more than 200 pieces of equipment, would clear the streets but commute times might be approximately doubled.

"There will be delays, that's just to be expected in these conditions," McNabb said, "If you don't have to be on the roads tomorrow, it might be a good day to take a day off."

A 23-year-old woman, a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy were killed Thursday morning when the compact car they were in crashed head-on with a truck about 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Three others were seriously injured.

Mounties say it was snowing heavily at the time and visibility was poor.

The driver of the truck, a 46 year-old male, is facing several charges, including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

Thousands of people in Hungary found themselves trapped in heavy snow after a sudden cold snap and high winds swept over Eastern Europe. Budapest has deployed tanks to reach motorists trapped by the conditions.

The heavy dump has trapped people in cars, buses and trains as dozens of major roads across the country were blocked by the snowfall.

Tanks and other military vehicles with caterpillar tracks have been dispatched to rescue motorists as trucks jackknifed causing huge traffic jams on the main motorway that links Budapest and Vienna.

"The situation is most critical on the M1 motorway where hundreds of cars are stranded in the snow, most of them for 18-20 hours now," Reuters cites Marton Hajdu, spokesman for the National Directorate for Disaster Management.

A state of emergency has been declared in Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Saturday as the city is paralyzed by heavy snowfall and blizzard totally abnormal for March.

"Due to the deterioration of weather conditions [heavy snowfall, blizzards, snow-banks] a state of emergency is declared in the capital," the statement by the Kiev State Administration said.

The situation in the city is so dire that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has signed a special decree urging all government agencies to provide maximum assistance to victims of the snowstorm.

The military is also involved in rescuing the city from its snowbound condition as 550 servicemen are deployed to the capital to aid the community services.

Besides 253 snow-cleaning vehicles, 13 armored fighting vehicles are being used to tow stranded cars, with 270 trucks, 540 cars, 83 buses and 15 trolleybuses already removed from snow banks.

Aerial video showed vehicles completely buried under snow drifts in Cumbria

Snow and sleet have disrupted transport and power supplies as severe wintry weather continues in much of the UK.

A number of roads and airports have closed, with many of the weekend's sporting fixtures affected too.

A Met Office warning for snow covers Northern Ireland, much of England, northern Wales and south-west Scotland.

Motorists were trapped in their cars overnight in Dumfries and Galloway and 35,000 homes in Northern Ireland are without electricity.

It follows snowfalls across parts of the UK on Friday which also led to the closure of hundreds of schools.

The continuing wintry weather sees snow falling across central and northern parts of the country and spreading to the South and South East of England on Saturday.