23.12.2022
A dangerously frigid arctic air mass blankets a vast expanse of the country, dropping temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees in Idaho. Thousands of canceled flights threaten the vacations of millions of people.
More than 5,000 flights were canceled across the United States on Thursday (12.22.2022) due to Elliot, a major winter storm that upended holiday holiday travel plans with a triple threat of heavy snow, hurricane-force winds and bitter cold.
Several states have declared a state of emergency, including New York, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, and North Carolina. The cold snap is expected to reach South Texas.
Reports of snow-covered roads come in from all over the country and the media reported numerous accidents.
The winter storm described as “anomalous” by meteorologists, affected the Midwest of the country while moving to the Northeast with extremely freezing temperatures.
The dangerously frigid arctic air mass of historic proportions was expected to bring heavy rain followed by flash frosts on the east coast and gusts of 100 km/h winds, bringing bitter cold all the way to the border with Mexico, reported the national meteorological service, the National Weather Service (NWS).
Biden: “It is a very serious weather alert”
President Joe Biden himself warned Americans to take the storm “extremely seriously” and to follow the recommendations of the authorities.
“This is really a very severe weather alert. And it goes from Oklahoma to Wyoming, and from Wyoming to Maine. And there are real consequences, so I encourage everyone, everyone to please follow local advisories.” he said in statements to reporters from the Oval Office.
Biden stressed that this is not like a normal snow day, but that it is something “serious”, while revealing that his government has tried to contact the 26 governors of the affected states.
A plane is defrosted at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport amid the arctic storm that brings extreme cold to the US during Christmas days.
Threatened Christmas holidays
According to the FlightAware website, there have been more than 2,400 flight cancellations within, to or from the United States this Thursday, and another 2,300 flights have been canceled tomorrow, Friday.
The airports most affected by the cancellations are O’Hare in Chicago, Chicago Midway and Denver.
Airlines have indicated that snow, icy winds and low temperatures could affect travel from Seattle, on the west coast of the country, to Boston, in the northeast, or North Carolina, in the south.
“Dangerous” temperatures.
In its latest update on Thursday, the NWS forecast a “major freak storm” through the weekend, with snow, strong winds and “dangerous” low temperatures.
The NWS indicated that there will be “an unprecedented dangerous mass of cold air” from an Arctic front that will reach the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.
According to local media, temperatures as low as -59 °F (-50 °C) have been reached in northern Idaho, while some of the country’s major cities will face extreme conditions on Friday with -34 °F (-36 0.6°C) in Chicago, Illinois, -32°F (-35°C) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and -21°F (-29°C) in Denver, Colorado.
The weather phenomenon will range from the northern Great Basin, a watershed that encompasses Nevada, part of Utah and California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming, to the northern Midwest, the Great Lakes and the central and northern Appalachians.
The NWS said there will be “an unprecedented dangerous cold air mass” from an Arctic front reaching the Ohio and Tennessee valleys tonight.
Such are the weather conditions that even a country like Canada, accustomed to snow and low winter temperatures, is facing unusually extreme cold that is hitting the western provinces and is expected to spread to the east in the coming hours, with snow abundant and windy.
jc (efe, CTV News Ottawa, The Washington Post, reuters, NBC5)