Cars and semis vanished into whiteout conditions across interstates and back roads as a powerful winter system buried much of Ohio in deep, drifting snow. Plows struggled to keep up, drivers abandoned vehicles in ditches, and law enforcement moved from warning to outright shutting down travel in some counties as the storm intensified.
The chaos on the roads was the most visible sign of a broader emergency, with heavy snow, escalating travel bans, and a follow up blast of bitter cold combining into one of the most disruptive winter events the state has seen in years. From Central Ohio’s major arteries to smaller communities in the northeast, the storm turned routine weekend drives into dangerous ordeals.
The storm that turned Ohio’s roads into a parking lot
The system that paralyzed traffic was not a routine clipper but a sprawling winter event that locked in over large parts of Ohio. As snow intensified, visibility dropped and pavement temperatures fell, leaving even treated highways slick enough that cars and semis lost traction on straight stretches, not just on ramps and bridges. Video from the scene shows long lines of vehicles at a standstill, with drivers stepping out into thigh deep drifts to check on neighbors and assess damage.
In Central Ohio, the storm was identified as Winter Storm Fern, a system that delivered some of the heaviest snow in Columbus in more than a decade and pushed conditions past the point where normal plowing could keep roads open. As the snow bands pivoted across the region, the storm’s reach extended from the state capital to smaller communities, overwhelming local crews that were already running continuous shifts.
Cars in ditches, semis stranded, and a storm chaser’s front row seat
On the ground, the impact was immediate and unnerving. Heavy bands of snow turned interstates into ice rinks, and within hours there were reports of cars sliding into ditches and tractor trailers jackknifing or stalling on grades. One widely shared clip shows a line of semis stuck on a gentle incline while smaller vehicles try, and fail, to weave around them before spinning out themselves, a scene echoed in multiple reports of heavy snow causing major travel problems across the state…