AFP extension
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
President Biden has warned Americans that it will get even colder in the coming days. “It’s not like when you were a kid and it snowed for a day,” he said in a briefing with White House officials. “This is serious.”
Extremely cold temperatures are expected across the United States this weekend, with temperatures dropping as low as -45 degrees in some places. More than half of the states issued weather warnings yesterday and today for cold, high winds and snow.
Air traffic is flat
Several major airports have canceled more than 5,300 flights in total. Several airlines say they don’t charge extra for changing flights. Freight traffic has also come to a halt in some states.
The US Meteorological Institute predicts it will be the coldest Christmas in decades. “It will be a winter as we only see it once in a generation.”
President Biden urges everyone to heed warnings from local weather services:
Weather services say there may be a so-called cyclone bomb can originate. This term is used when strong winds occur when the air pressure decreases in a short time. On the east coast, services warn of a “life-threatening cold wind”.
In some places, snowstorms can form. Experts warn that bare skin in this cold can freeze in five to ten minutes.
About 200 million Americans will be affected by bad weather. This is also the case in Florida, where the coldest Christmas in thirty years is expected. But it’s cold in other southern states too. In the Texan city of El Paso, the temperature drops to around -9.5 degrees.
That city is home to many undocumented immigrants who have crossed the border into Mexico. Many of those people sleep on the street, reports the BBCtalking to a Venezuelan migrant sleeping in a bus station.
