Intense cold, strong winds, heavy snow everywhere in the United States… A series of fatal accidents on icy roads
-40 degrees below zero in Montana, below zero in Texas… 35 inches of snow in Buffalo, New York
In the run-up to the Christmas weekend, a powerful winter storm hit nearly the entire United States, wreaking havoc and disrupting traffic everywhere, leaving vacation travelers grounded.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Reuters on the 23rd (local time), several weather warnings were issued in areas where 240 million people live today, or 70% of the US population.
As the “cyclone bomb” formed in the Midwestern United States gradually moves eastward, extreme weather phenomena such as abnormal cold snaps, heavy snow, and strong winds occur in various places.
A bomb cyclone is a cyclonic storm created by the combination of cold arctic air currents and moist air, usually occurring when atmospheric pressure drops more than 24 millibars within 24 hours.
“Winter weather advisories are in effect from Canada’s southern border south of the Rio Grande (to the Mexican border), the Gulf Coast and Central Peninsula of Florida, and from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast,” he said. said the NWS.
In the mountainous regions of Montana, the mercury dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius, and even in southern states like Texas and Tennessee, the temperature dipped below freezing.
As a result, migrants living in tents on the US-Mexico border waiting to travel to the US are said to be suffering from the cold.
Heavy snow is falling in central and eastern Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.
In Buffalo, in northwest New York, driving was banned due to 35 inches of snow falling.
As of this afternoon, an estimated 1.5 million households in the United States were without electricity.
In North Carolina alone, 187,000 households were without power, and 114,000 households in Maine, which has a small population, experience power outages.
With heavy snowfall, strong winds and freezing weather in many places, the number of flight cancellations is also on the rise.
According to flight information website FlightAware, as of 2:45 pm the same day, more than 4,500 domestic and international flights had been canceled in the United States.
More than 7,000 flights were canceled in the two days just before Christmas, including 2,688 flights from the previous day.
It has been counted that more than 500 flights, nearly half, were canceled from airports in the Seattle area alone.
There have also been fatal accidents.
In Oklahoma, three people died in separate icy road accidents and two people died in Kentucky.
A homeless man also died.
Kentucky Governor Andy Bercier urged residents to “stay safe at home” via Twitter.
FedEx also said it experienced disruptions to its Christmas shipments as its distribution hub in Memphis, Tennessee was disrupted by bad weather.
/yunhap news
