Powerful US winter storm threatens to unleash Christmas chaos

First modification: 22/12/2022 – 14:54Last modification: 22/12/2022 – 14:52

Airlines told travelers to prepare for delays and cancellations after an Arctic cold front gripped the center of the country on Wednesday. It is expected to cross the Midwest and head toward the East Coast on Friday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned in its 0822 GMT forecast that the storm “will have widespread and potentially devastating impacts in the center and east” of the country.

“Record cold and life-threatening wind chills over the Great Plains would spread across the eastern half of the nation on Friday,” the bulletin said.

He also warned of wind chill with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, and urged precautions. Some places could see thermometers drop as low as -56 degrees.

“Wind chills of this magnitude can cause frostbite in less than 5 minutes if precautions are not taken” while “hypothermia and death are also possible from prolonged exposure to cold,” he warned.

The NWS indicated that strong gusts and heavy snowfall could cause serious damage to infrastructure and disrupt air and road travel.

The warning coincides with reports from the Transportation Security Administration that travel volume on these dates is close to pre-pandemic levels, with the greatest movement on Thursday.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that more than 112 million people will travel more than 80 km between Friday and January 2, the vast majority by car.

“Bomb Cyclone”

The Federal Aviation Administration warned for its part that strong winds and snowfall could delay flights in the main air hubs of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago and Denver.

In Denver, the temperature is expected to plummet from a high of 10 degrees Celsius on Wednesday to 26 below zero on Thursday.

Authorities in the Colorado capital opened the Denver Coliseum as an emergency warm-up center.

AccuWeather meteorologists said the storm could quickly develop into what is known as a “bomb cyclone,” which occurs when pressure drops and a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass.

The NWS in Buffalo, New York, called it a “once-in-a-generation storm” with wind gusts of more than 105 km/hr, wind chills of 6 to 12 degrees below zero and scattered power outages or possibly widespread.

Minneapolis meteorologists described the phenomenon as a “high-level, life-threatening event” that “should be taken seriously.”

In Fort Worth, Texas, the NWS said it did not expect the cold snap to be as devastating as the one in February last year, when freezing temperatures killed dozens and left millions without power in that southern state.

And in Washington, DC, lawmakers were scrambling to agree on a sweeping $1.7 trillion budget bill before the storm disrupted their travel plans.