A freezing winter storm has killed at least 34 people across the United States. Millions hunkered down against a deep freeze on Sunday to ride out the storm.
The Arctic blast is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with snowdrifts and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.
About 60% of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. Travellers’ weather woes are likely to continue, with hundreds of flight cancellations already and more expected after a bomb cyclone – when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm – developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
