According to media reports, around 250 million people in the USA and Canada are affected by the extreme weather, especially in the eastern two-thirds of the states, according to the US weather service National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS is maintaining its weather warning as of Sunday morning until Tuesday.
Until then, arctic air masses, winter storms and heavy snowfall make for the iciest Christmas holidays in North America in a long time. According to the BBC, the storm front stretches more than 3,000 kilometers from the US state of Texas to Quebec, Canada.
Widespread power outages
According to reports from US media such as NBC, at least 23 people have died so far, most of them in traffic accidents. According to the US website PowerOutage, which reports power outages, up to 1.6 million homes in the US and Canada were without power as of Saturday. Storm and snow had torn cables.
Warning of extreme road conditions
The US weather service called on travelers to exercise extreme caution over the Christmas weekend and warned of extremely poor visibility due to whiteouts, restricted visibility and orientation due to heavy snowfall. Traveling under these conditions is “extremely dangerous and at times impossible,” it said.
The NWS also warned of the extremely low temperatures combined with high wind speeds, which can lead to frostbite after just a few minutes in the cold without appropriate protection. In the state of Montana in the northwest of the USA, minus 45 degrees were measured over the weekend.
Cold claims victims in the USA
The United States is currently extremely cold. The arctic winter storm continues over the Christmas weekend. 23 people have died so far, mostly in traffic accidents.
emergency services collapsed
In Erie County, south of the Great Lakes in upstate New York, emergency services were at times overwhelmed. Marc Poloncarz, responsible for civil protection in the district, called on Twitter to only dial the emergency number in the “most critical, life-threatening cases” in order to keep the lines free.
He urged residents to stay in their homes despite power and heating outages. “This is a life-threatening situation,” the US broadcaster CNN quoted him as saying on Saturday evening. “It’s not something to play with.” According to media reports, the snow was more than 70 cm deep in Buffalo, also in the state of New York. The local airport should remain closed at least until Monday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul mobilized the National Guard for Erie County and Buffalo on the border with Canada – authorities say emergency services there have all but collapsed in the face of the extreme snowstorm. Countless vehicles got stuck on the roads with meter-high snowdrifts.
Thousands of flights canceled
The Arctic cold front messed up the Christmas plans of many travellers: According to the flight data website FlightAware, almost 6,000 flights had already been canceled on Friday, and on Saturday there were almost 3,000 again. US media, citing weather experts, saw the conditions for a “bomb cyclone” fulfilled in some places: a weather phenomenon in which the air pressure drops extremely within a short period of time and increases the force of the storm.
