Monstrous winter blast batters US amid holiday travel rush

Bloomberg

A massive, once-in-a-decade winter storm is battering the US with blizzard conditions and life-threatening temperatures, while causing mayhem for travellers across the country at the peak of the holiday season.
As of Friday, more than 200 million people — around 60% of the nation’s population — were under some form of winter weather warning or advisory, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Heavy snow is set to blanket the Great Lakes region and parts of northern New York state and New England, it said.
The blast — spanning from Washington state to Maine, across the Midwest and down to the Gulf of Mexico — is hitting just as an estimated 112.7 million people are set to travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) through January 2, according to automotive group AAA. It’s also threatening power outages for large swaths of the country and even the potential disruption of liquefied natural gas exports, which have been a lifeline for Europe as it battles a historic energy crisis.
“This is not like a snow day, you know, when you’re a kid. This is serious stuff,” President Joe Biden said in a Thursday briefing, calling it “dangerous” and threatening. “If you all have travel plans, leave now. Not a joke.” More than 3,200 flights for Friday and Saturday have been cancelled around the US, according to airline tracking service FlightAware.
Amtrak also cancelled some trains in the Midwest and northern New England. Hundreds of thousands of power customers in an area spanning from Texas to Massachusetts were experiencing outages as of Friday,
according to website PowerOutage.us. “It is a really impressive system,” said Ashton Robinson Cook, a forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. “It is something that happens only every one or two decades.”
Significant freezing rain is possible in the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures are set to moderate in the Northern Rockies and High Plains this weekend. Extreme cold warnings covered western Canada, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. Winter storm warnings spread across Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces. In Toronto, the country’s most populous city, forecasters have warned of a flash freeze, high winds and up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) of snow by Saturday.
The lowest recorded temperature in the 48 contiguous US states was -50F in Montana, while Canada’s coldest was about -53C (-64F) in Rabbit Kettle, Northwest Territories.
While New York and other East Coast cities likely won’t have to contend with snow, high winds coupled with a new moon — which affects tides — raise the risk of coastal flooding from the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Maine. Breakers as high as 15 feet could crash into the Long Island shoreline, and tides could rise 3 feet above normal high marks, the weather service said. People in flood-prone areas should hurry to protect their lives and property.
Farmers are bracing for record cold that could cause machinery to break down, impact winter wheat growth and freeze livestock at a time of already historic food inflation.