Icy weather may ground flights to Midwest, northeast

TAMPA -- Five airlines canceled at least a dozen flights headed to Boston, New York, Newark, N.J., and Flint, Mich., from Tampa International Airport Friday morning because of ice storms in the northeast and and Midwest, according to airport officials. Forty-three arrivals and 16 departures have had delays of more than 30 minutes, said Brenda Geogahagan, an airport spokeswoman. And there may be more.

Holiday travelers headed to the Midwest or northeast this weekend may find delays or cancellations of their flights because of weather problems, according to National Weather Service forecasters.

A winter storm warning is active for the Dakotas and it will create more winter weather for the Minnesota and Great Lakes region starting tomorrow, said Dan Noah, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It won't effect Chicago because that's too far north," he said. "But anybody looking to head to Minnesota may be in trouble."

And a new storm system is forming in the Carolinas that will be traveling up to the northeast in the latter part of the weekend, Noah said. "Depending on how close you are to the coast, you'll get a mixture of snow, sleet, ice and rain," he said. "It was bad up there and it's going to get better and then worse again as the weekend goes on."

Geogahagan said the best way to be sure is to stay in touch with your airline for any possible delays in travel.

But if you plan stick around, Saturday will be another nice day in Tampa.

Tampa Bay can expect another night of fog that will begin after midnight and lift around 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., said Eric Oglesby, a forecaster.

"The high will be in the 80s," Oglesby said.

Robbyn Mitchell, Times staff writer