A monstrous, once-in-a-decade winter storm is battering the U.S., bringing with it heavy snow, searing winds and dangerously low temperatures, while causing mayhem for travelers across the country at the peak of the holiday season.
As of early 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. Snow is set to blanket the Great Lakes region and parts of northern New York state and New England.
The storm is hitting the U.S. just as an estimated 112.7 million people are set to travel at least 50 miles through Jan. 2, according to automotive group AAA. The effects even threaten to disrupt the country’s exports of liquefied natural gas — 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 3,100 flights for Friday and Saturday have been canceled around the U.S., according to airline tracking service FlightAware.
Amtrak also canceled some trains in the Midwest and northern New England. Hundreds of thousands of power customers in states from New York to Texas were experiencing outages as of Friday morning, according to website PowerOutage.us.
The arctic front, expected to continue through the week, is perhaps most remarkable for its sheer size. Snow, blizzard, freezes and flood warnings and advisories stretch from Washington state to Maine and down to the Gulf of Mexico. Frigid temperatures reach as far south as Texas.
“It is a really impressive system,” said Ashton Robinson Cook, a forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. “It is something that happens only every one or two decades.”
On Friday, the high temperature in Chicago is set to be around 0F, with a wind chill of -37F, according to the National Weather Service. Rain will hit New York through the morning and early afternoon, with wind gusts as high as 46 miles per hour. Significant freezing rain is also possible in the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures are set to moderate in the Northern Rockies and High Plains this weekend.
Extreme cold warnings also cover western Canada, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. Across the country, 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 morning.
Thursday’s lowest recorded temperature in the 48 contiguous U.S. states was -50F in Montana, while Canada’s coldest was about -53C in Rabbit Kettle, Northwest Territories.
While New York and other East Coast cities 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.
The cold had pushed across the Plains into the Midwest and Texas and was likely to set nearly 80 records — mostly for low daily maximum temperatures — across the country, according to Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center.
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.
In Texas, where the state’s electric grid was battered by cold early last year, the chill should peak through Saturday and start to moderate early next week, Chenard said. The snow from the storm won’t be that extreme for many places, though high winds will be a problem, he said.
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(With assistance from Christine Buurma and Stephen Stapczynski.)
