Thousands of flights across the United States were cancelled over the weekend as a massive winter storm began to cause widespread disruption, knocking out electricity and obstructing major roads with hazardous ice.
According to the National Weather Service, widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain threatened approximately 180 million people, representing more than half of the American population, in a corridor extending from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England.
The service cautioned the public to prepare for several days of extremely cold temperatures, reports AP.
Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, noted that the ice and snow would be slow to melt, which is expected to delay recovery efforts.
President Donald Trump has authorised emergency declarations for no fewer than 12 states, with additional declarations anticipated.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pre-positioned staff, search and rescue teams, and essential commodities across various states, while advising citizens to remain at home if possible.
In the eastern United States, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced a speed limit of 56 kilometres per hour on highways and restrictions on commercial vehicles, describing the storm as a rare event.
Roughly 140,000 power outages were documented along the storm’s trajectory on Saturday, with Louisiana reporting over 58,000 and Texas approximately 50,000.
In Shelby County, Texas, falling pine branches caused by ice accumulation left a third of the county’s 16,000 electric customers without power, while Commissioner Stevie Smith reported hundreds of trees blocking roads.
Mark Pierce from the DeSoto Parish sheriff’s office in Louisiana stated that trees were completely saturated with ice. Aviation tracking site FlightAware reported that more than 13,000 flights were cancelled across the country on Saturday and Sunday.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium indicated that the number of cancellations on Sunday marked the highest single-day total since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Major transport hubs including Dallas-Fort Worth International, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte experienced significant disruptions, and nearly all Sunday departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were cancelled by late Saturday.
Senior state meteorologist Will Lanxton warned that Georgia might face its most significant ice storm in over a decade.
Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry deployed 1,800 workers in 12-hour shifts to treat roads with brine, while Governor Brian Kemp mobilised 120 National Guard members to assist in the hardest-hit areas. As the storm tracks towards the Northeast, snow accumulations are expected to exceed 30 centimetres.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani encouraged residents to stay indoors and avoid any unnecessary travel.
In the Midwest, windchills dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius, a level where frostbite can occur within 10 minutes, while Rhinelander, Wisconsin, recorded its lowest temperature in nearly 30 years at minus 38 degrees Celsius.
The severe weather resulted in the cancellation or rescheduling of Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville held its Saturday performance without an audience.
Academic closures for Monday were announced in several cities including Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Memphis, with universities such as UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Mississippi also cancelling classes.
Josh Weiss, a meteorologist at the NOAA Weather Prediction Centre, highlighted the storm’s unique nature, citing its 2,000-mile spatial coverage and the record-breaking cold expected to follow. few headlines
