Arctic cold swept across much of the United States Friday, combining with snow, ice and strong winds from a major winter storm roaring in from the Great Lakes to knock out power and thwart travel for millions of Americans. before the holiday weekend.
Extreme winter weather was blamed for at least four deaths on Friday.
A 50-vehicle pileup on the Ohio Turnpike in a snowstorm near Toledo killed one motorist, injured several others and closed both lanes of the highway, according to the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department.
Stranded motorists had to be evacuated by bus to prevent them from freezing in their cars in sub-zero temperatures, the department said.
Three weather-related deaths were also confirmed in the adjacent state of Kentucky: two from car accidents and one homeless person who died from exposure.
“Please stay home and stay safe,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Twitter, announcing the deaths.
With the frost stretching from Montana to Texas as it moves east, some 240 million people, more than two-thirds of the US population, were under winter weather warnings and advisories Friday, the government said. National Weather Service (NWS).
‘I guess it’s cold outside’
The coldest place in the nation on Friday was the remote northern Montana town of Havre near the Canadian border, where the mercury had risen from a low of 38 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 39 C) to a relatively mild minus 20 just before noon, the NWS informed.
“It’s been colder, but yeah, I guess it’s cold outside,” Tyler Schaub, the manager of Rod’s Drive Inn, conceded as he flipped burgers on the grill. “We are used to it, but still it is better not to stay outside for a long time.”
Numbing cold intensified by strong winds swept across the deep South to the US-Mexico border, bringing wind chill factors in the single digits to the border city of El Paso, Texas. Exposure to such conditions can cause frostbite in a matter of minutes.
Severe frost warnings were posted for southern Georgia and much of the four Gulf Coast states: Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
Farther north, heavy snow was forecast for parts of Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, including more than 35 inches in Buffalo, Weather Service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said.
The map of existing or impending winter hazards “represents one of the largest outreaches of winter weather warnings and advisories in history,” the agency said.
Extreme weather disrupted homes and vacation plans just days before Christmas.
With the nation’s power systems under strain from rising heat demand as well as storm damage to transmission lines, an estimated 1.5 million US homes and businesses were left behind. no power Friday, according to the monitoring site Poweroutage.us.
Heating and power prices soared as inclement weather forced cuts in power production and a freeze caused demand to rise. Strong winds, ice and snow also disrupted commercial air traffic during one of the busiest periods of the year.
Nearly 5,000 US flights were canceled on Friday, according to the FlightAware flight tracking service. About 500 flights to or from Seattle’s main airport were canceled as a separate storm system brought ice and freezing rain to the Pacific Northwest.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) had estimated that 112.7 million people planned to travel 50 miles or more from home between Friday and January 2. That number is likely to drop due to treacherous weather that complicates air and road travel over the weekend.
Officials in the Buffalo New York area instituted a driving ban.
“If there’s good news, it’s that the storm has moved quickly over some areas,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. msnbc on Friday. Many airports, like Denver’s, are expected to bounce back quickly from a wave of delays and cancellations. Other centers like Chicago could pick up later on Friday, he said.
‘Wrap’
Last-minute holiday gift purchases may also have little chance of reaching their destinations at Christmas.
FedEx, United Parcel Service, the US Postal Service and Amazon.com alerted customers that severe weather was disrupting key operations in Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, the Dakotas and other areas affected by the bitter cold. and the blizzards. Forecasters said the massive storm over the Midwest had materialized into a “bomb cyclone,” a phenomenon caused by a sharp and rapid drop in air pressure that forms a kind of cold-weather hurricane.
The storm system was expected to produce blinding snow from the northern Plains and Great Lakes region to the upper Mississippi Valley and western New York state.
Along the East Coast, rain and wind-driven wave surges pushing inland could cause up to 3 feet of coastal flooding, with the possibility of flash freezing and black ice, the Weather Service said.
Forecasters are predicting some relief in the next few days due to the frostbite. In the northern Rocky Mountains and High Plains, temperatures could rise to 40-60 degrees over the weekend.
For now, Meteorologist Cook said: “Bundle up and stay inside if you can, and check on your neighbors.”
