Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET: Snow was falling heavily by midafternoon in Chicago as a winter storm spread east, NBCChicago.com reported.

Though no significant delays were reported, airlines at O’Hare Airport canceled more than 300 flights, NBCChicago.com said. At Midway Airport, Southwest Airlines canceled all 70 of its flights scheduled between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday.

The Chicago Department of Aviation urged passengers to check airline websites for status updates.

The Milwaukee area was seeing light snow at midday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Original story: Snow is forecast for Chicago, Milwaukee and other Midwestern cities Friday as a winter system travels toward the Northeast, according to The Weather Channel.

Let it snow: words that skiers and employees of resorts around the country are fervently repeating as flakes resist falling on slopes from California to New England.

“It’s been a slow start for us,” said Ethan Austin, spokesman at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, the largest ski area east of the Rockies. The resort had little snowfall in December, so they’ve been relying on snow-making equipment to keep their slopes open, Austin said.

“Right now we don’t have a whole lot in terms of natural snow, around 25 to 30 inches,” he said. “That’s quite a bit below average.” The resort currently has 28 trails open; 65 to 70 open trails is typical for this time of year.

Across the country, at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California, the snowmakers are on as well, said spokeswoman Joani Lynch. “We are, safe to say, off to a slow start.”

NEW YORK — It’s a recipe for mass power outages: up to 15 inches of snow forecast in parts of the Northeast on Saturday — much of it landing on trees that have yet to shed their leaves in fall.

“We’re expecting this very heavy and wet snow, and a lot of it,” Chris Warren, a Weather Channel meteorologist, told NBC News. “And when it lands on the leaves it weighs down the branches, you get the branches snapping, falling on power lines. When it’s all said and done by Sunday millions of people could be in the dark.”

MIAMI — More areas along the East Coast ordered evacuations after the forecast for Hurricane Irene took a turn for the worse on Thursday, with the Category 3 storm now expected to track farther inland and dump up to 15 inches of rain.

That puts more people within the warning “cone” issued by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

New York City, Long Island, Atlantic City and Virginia Beach were among the areas now near the center of Irene’s forecast path, along with even more areas of North Carolina, where Irene is expected to make a first landfall on Saturday near Ocracoke Island.

(CNN) — Take me out to the ball game? For some dealing with this relentless heat wave, that idea could make you think twice.

The heat wave that has taken hold of much of the upper Midwest over the past few days is taking its toll on just about everyone — including those who may be used to working up a sweat outdoors.

Case in point: Monday’s Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs baseball game. Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay was forced to leave the game early as temperatures at Chicago’s Wrigley Field soared into the 90′s. The heat index during game time was well over 100 degrees.

Piedmont, Oklahoma (CNN) — Teams of rescuers were out Wednesday in Canadian County, Oklahoma, searching land and water for a 3-year-old who went missing in ferocious weather Tuesday.

Ryan Hamil was with his mother and his siblings in their home when the storm hit, said Pam Capener, the boy’s great-aunt. “Cole, the 15-month-old, did not survive,” she said. “Cathleen, who is 5, is in the hospital in stable condition.”

JOPLIN, Mo. — From heroism, to disbelief to shock. Those were some of the stories being told by survivors of the Joplin twister. Below are some of those initial reactions to the tragedy.
‘Felt like the building was breathing’
Rod Pace, Med Flight manager at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, watched the tornado form to the southwest like so many before.

The Army Corps of Engineers began opening the Bonnet Carre spillway 28 miles north of New Orleans Monday morning to divert part of the river flow to Lake Pontchartrain. Opening the spillway has no impact on homes or businesses.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Survivors and rescuers combed through destroyed towns and neighborhoods on Thursday, looking for belongings and victims after dozens of tornadoes ripped through the South overnight. The death toll continued to climb in Alabama, and at least 280 people in six states perished in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years.

(CNN) — A 25-year-old man was declared dead Friday afternoon after being swept out to sea off a northern California beach while trying to photograph a tsunami launched by the massive earthquake near Japan, according to a Del Norte County, California, official.

The man’s identity was withheld as authorities tried to contact his family, said Joey Young, a spokesman for the emergency operations center of Del Norte County.