Massive winter storm brings frigid temps, snow and ice to US

By On Dec 23, 2022

[ad_1]

Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

**Canada Winter Weather** A person leaps over a puddle of water and slush as rain falls in Montreal, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, as a storm system bears down on the region. (Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press via AP)

**Winter Weather** Water floods a restaurant terrace during high tide on Long Wharf, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Boston. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

**Winter Weather** Water floods a parking lot on Long Wharf during high tide, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Boston. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

**Winter Weather** Water floods a street during high tide, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

**Winter Weather** Brooks Payne photographs flood waters during high tide on Long Wharf, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Boston. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

**APTOPIX Winter Weather North Dakota** Rows of headstones at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery are blanketed by drifting snow Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Mandan, N.D. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

**Winter Weather Chicago** “Orange tent project” volunteer Morgan Mcluckie, left, speaks with unhoused person Peter Zielinski after giving him bottles of propane to use with his portable heater as cold and snowy weather moves in Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Chicago. Officially the nonprofit “Feeding People Through Plants,” founder Andy Robledo set out to find unhoused people and give them large orange tents used for ice fishing to replace other tents and shelters that are inadequate for severe winter weather. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

**APTOPIX Winter Weather Chicago** Two Chicago Transit Authority trains sit in an elevated station in Chicago’s famed Loop as a winter storm continues Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. A massive winter storm will be hovering over the majority of the country for a few days featuring strong wind chills and major snow accumalation. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

**Winter Weather** Frost crystals decorate a frozen pond at Pioneer Park in Walla Walla, Wash., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP)

**APTOPIX Winter Weather Iowa** Mark Sorter clears snow from a downtown ice skating rink, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

**Winter Weather Virginia** The temperature is displayed on Main Street in downtown Blacksburg, Va., on Friday Dec. 23 2022. (Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times via AP)

**Travel Winter Weather NYC** A passenger check flight departure schedules, some showing cancellations, at the Delta terminal at Laguardia Airport, Friday Dec. 23, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

**Winter Weather** The Firestone family makes their way across Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, N.Y. after stocking up on supplies at the grocery store, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions.(Derek Gee /The Buffalo News via AP)

**Winter Weather** About 5 inches of snow and subzero temperatures continued their gripped on the Cincinnati area as a “bomb cyclone” Arctic air blast moved through much of the country, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions. (Kareem Elgazzar /The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)

**Winter Weather** Steam rises off of Lake Michigan as morning temperatures remain below zero with heavy winds Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Milwaukee. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

**Winter Weather Maine** A wave slams into the rocks at Portland Head Light, Maine, during a powerful winter storm, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

**Winter Weather Vermont** Dean Stahman, a Brattleboro, Vt., resident, clears off some slush and water from his driveway as a windy wet wintry mix slammed into the area, causing downed power lines and localized flooding on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)

**Winter Weather Iowa** Frost forms on a storm window as temperatures remain below zero Fahrenheit during a blizzard warning, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen via AP)

**Winter Weather Massachusetts** Rocks thrown up by the high surf and wind cover East Beach Road in Westport, Mass., on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022 after a storm surge made landfall across the SouthCoast flooding many coastal areas. (Peter Pereira/The Standard-Times via AP)

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

More than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday, the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.

Power outages have left more than 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports. Utilities in Nashville, Memphis and throughout the Tennessee Valley said they were implementing rolling blackouts Friday to conserve power as the region battles an extreme cold front.

And more than 4,500 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays.

“We’ve just got to stay positive. Anger is not going to help us at all,” said Wendell Davis, who plays basketball with a team in France and was waiting at O’Hare in Chicago on Friday after a series of flight cancellations.

The huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. And in Mexico, migrants waited near the U.S. border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

“The impacts are perhaps far greater than they might be in the middle of winter during a typical weekend without a holiday,” said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations for the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, noting that while the blizzard conditions may set some records, the storm isn’t unprecedented.

Even though fleets of snow plows and salt trucks have been deployed, driving was hazardous and sometimes deadly. A Kansas City, Missouri, driver died Thursday after skidding into a creek. And in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, a pickup truck driver was hospitalized after sliding into a pond.

State police in Michigan reported multiple crashes Friday in southwestern and western Michigan, including one in which nine semitrailers also were involved in a pileup. Another multivehicle crash shut down U.S. 131 south of Grand Rapids, and a firefighter and postal worker were hurt in separate crashes.

Activists also were rushing to get the homeless out of the cold. Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday in Detroit at a shelter and a warming center that are designed to hold 100 people.

“This is a lot of extra people” but “you can’t” turn anyone away, said Faith Fowler, the executive director of Cass Community Social Services, which runs both facilities.

In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing efforts to check on unhoused people through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants. Robledo and volunteers build tents modeled on ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor.

“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room. But it’s a huge step up from what they had before,” Robledo said.

In Portland, Oregon, officials opened five emergency shelters. Fallen trees and power lines have closed roads across the Portland metro area. And nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Interstate 84, a major highway through the Columbia River Gorge, were closed Friday morning.

All bus service was suspended in the greater Seattle area Friday morning due to an ice storm that made travel treacherous.

In far northern Indiana, lake-effect snow rolling off Lake Michigan could boost storm totals to well over a foot in some areas by Sunday, said Mark Steinwedel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Syracuse, Indiana.

“It’s really going to add up,” he said, predicting “pretty awful travel.”

The weather service is forecasting the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes online Friday.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem late Thursday activated the state’s National Guard to haul firewood from the Black Hills Forest Service to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as some members were stranded in their homes with dwindling fuel.

Other tribes also were struggling, including the Oglala Sioux Tribe in the western part of the state, which was using snowmobiles to reach members who live at the end of miles-long dirt roads.

But with the vehicles breaking down in the 10-foot drifts, officials were considering using horses to deliver essentials to some homes as they sought help from federal officials.

“It’s been one heck of a fight so far,” said tribal President Frank Star Comes Out.

In Maine, gusts approaching 70 mph (113 kph) were reported along the coast Friday morning. Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast, the wind topped 150 mph (2410 kph). The governor closed state offices, ferry service to Casco Bay islands was suspended and flooding was leading to some water rescues.

In Boston, rain combined with a high tide, sent waves over the seawall at Long Wharf in Boston and flooded some downtown streets.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency early Friday morning, described it as a “kitchen sink” storm.

“We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that Mother Nature could wallop at us this weekend” Hochul said during a news briefing.

It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak canceled service for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing early.

“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said at a news conference.

In eastern Iowa, sports broadcaster Mark Woodley became a Twitter sensation after he was called on to do live stand ups in the wind and snow because sporting events were called off. By midday Friday, a compilation of his TV stand-ups had been viewed nearly 5 million times on Twitter.

“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” he told an anchor. “The good news is that I can still feel my face right now. The bad news is, I kind of wish I couldn’t.”

___

Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press journalists Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit; Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon; and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

[ad_2]

Source link