Kansas, USA.- A winter storm of rare intensity swept across the United States on Friday, shutting down roads and airports in much of the country on Christmas Eve.
“More than 240 million people (more than 70 percent of the population) are affected by weather warnings,” the National Weather Service said.
Conditions are very dangerous for traffic, authorities warned.
Millions of people were expected to hit the roads and board flights for the Christmas and New Year holidays, marking a return to levels of mobility prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The specialized site Flightaware recorded more than 4,000 canceled flights within, to, or from the United States this Friday alone.
The most affected airports were those of Seattle, New York, Detroit, Chicago and Denver.
Americans are facing freezing temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages, and canceled holiday gatherings.
The winter cold map “represents one of the longest warnings in history,” forecasters said.
More than 458,000 homes and businesses were without power this morning.
It arrives cold to the border
The numbing cold intensified by strong winds, meanwhile, would reach the border with Mexico. In the states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, there were warnings of severe frosts, while an arctic gust that hit the Pacific Northwest could cause significant frosts.
In Canada, meanwhile, WestJet canceled all flights this Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, starting at 9:00 in the morning.
