Arctic storm brings holiday travel chaos to the United States

A "once-in-a-generation" winter storm with temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit (Celcius) caused Christmas travel chaos in the United States on Thursday, December 22, with thousands of flights canceled and major highways closed.

A reuters report said heavy snow and howling winds upended holiday plans at one of the busiest times of the year, as a huge cold front swept down from the Arctic and took freezing hold of the middle of the country.

Tens of millions of people were under winter storm advisories or warnings, with meteorologists saying it was so cold in places that anyone venturing outside risked frostbite within minutes. "This is not like a snow day when you were a kid," President Joe Biden told reporters. "This is serious stuff."

Blinding whiteouts and hazardous road conditions were already spreading, even as 100 million people were expected to take to the roads, according to the American Automobile Association.

22,000 flights delayed

The I-90, a major highway running across the north was shuttered in South Dakota, with officials saying it would not reopen until Friday. AccuWeather forecasters have said the storm could rapidly strengthen into what is known as a "bomb cyclone" through a process known as "bombogenesis," when the barometric pressure drops and a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass.

The National Weather Service warned snow squalls – bursts of snow lasting an hour or two – had already happened or were expected from the Central Plains to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Forecasters in Montana said they were expecting their coldest night of the Arctic snap Thursday, with temperatures down as low as -40 Fahrenheit (-40 Celsius), and windchill taking the temperature to a bone-crushing -60 Fahrenheit – only a little warmer than Mars, according to NASA data.

`Unprotected skin can get frostbite in less than 5 minutes’

Rich Maliawco, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Glasgow, Montana, said an encroaching high-pressure system was driving clouds away. "When it‍‍`s this cold, anybody can run into trouble," he said. "With these kinds of wind chills, if you‍‍`re not wearing those warm layers... unprotected skin can get frostbite in less than five minutes."

Conditions were cold enough for people to post videos of themselves carrying out the "boiling water challenge," where boiling water is thrown into the air and instantly freezes. "We created our own cloud @ -17° F (-27° C) at the #Missoula International Airport," tweeted NWS Missoula in Montana.

In Minneapolis and Saint Paul, more than eight inches (20 centimeters) of snow accumulated over a 24-hour period, the NWS said in a Thursday morning update.

Farther east in Buffalo, New York, forecasters called it a "once-in-a-generation storm" with wind gusts of more than 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour, wind chills as low as 10 to 20 degrees F below zero, and power outages.

State of Emergency

New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined the governors of several other states in declaring a state of emergency, warning of a long list of possible calamities. "Heavy rain and snow, strong winds, coastal and lakeshore flooding, flash freezing, extremely low wind chills and power outages all possible," an announcement said.

The School District of Philadelphia, the largest in Pennsylvania, announced that Friday‍‍`s final classes of the calendar year would be held online rather than in-person as scheduled.

In Allegheny County in the western part of the state, public works spokesman Brent Wasko said officials would deploy 33 salt trucks but that pretreating the roads wasn‍‍`t an option because expected rainfall Thursday night and Friday morning would wash the salt away.

Amtrak, meanwhile, canceled service on more than 20 routes, primarily in the Midwest. Some shelters in the Detroit area already were at capacity but still making room. "We are not sending anyone back into this cold," Aisha Morrell-Ferguson, a spokeswoman for COTS, a family-only shelter, told the Detroit News.

And in Portland, Oregon, officials opened four emergency shelters. In the city‍‍`s downtown, Steven Venus tried to get on a light-rail train to get out of the cold after huddling on the sidewalk overnight in below-zero temperatures. Courtney Dodds, a spokeswoman for the Union Gospel Mission, said teams from her organization had been going out to try to convince people to seek shelter. "It can be really easy for people to doze off and fall asleep and wind up losing their lives because of the cold weather."

In Montana, temperatures fell as low as 50 below zero (minus 46 Celsius) at Elk Park, a mountain pass on the Continental Divide. Schools and several ski areas closed, and several thousand people lost power. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine warned of a "unique and dangerous" situation of flash freezing Thursday night statewide. He also urged people to check on their neighbors and loved ones.

‍‍`Once-in-a-generation storm‍‍`

In famously snowy Buffalo, New York, forecasters predicted a "once-in-a-generation storm" because of heavy lake-effect snow, wind gusts as high as 65 mph (105 kph), whiteouts and the potential for extensive power outages. Mayor Byron Brown urged people to stay home, and the NHL postponed the Buffalo Sabres‍‍` home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Denver, also no stranger to winter storms, was the coldest it has been in 32 years on Thursday, when the temperature dropped to minus 24 (minus 31 Celsius) in the morning at the airport.

The wintry weather extended into Canada, causing delays and cancellations earlier in the week at Vancouver International Airport. A major winter storm was expected Friday into Saturday in Toronto, where wind gusts as high as 60 mph (100 kph) were predicted to cause blowing snow and limited visibility, Environment Canada said.