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Multiple people are dead, and more than 1 million customers have been left without power. Holiday travelers are encountering delays and cancellations after a monstrous winter storm sent temperatures plunging across much of the United States.
Heavy snow and blizzard conditions continue around portions of the Great Lakes, and as much as 2 feet of snow could fall on the eastern side of Lake Erie through Friday. Snowfall totals Friday afternoon ranged from 1 inch in Telluride, Colorado, to 22 inches in East Jordan, Michigan. Gusty winds have snapped trees, taking down wires and causing structural damage.
The brutal cold is expected to continue through the holiday weekend for much of the eastern U.S., with wind chill alerts extending all the way to South Florida.
More than 200 million people, or around 60% of the U.S. population, were under some form of weather warning or advisory.
What to know
- The storm system reached bomb cyclone criteria.
- The severe weather is causing travel chaos across the U.S.
- At least 17 people have died in weather-related fatalities. The deaths occurred in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kansas and Nebraska.
- In Kentucky, Louisville Gas & Electric and KU said they were performing “service interruptions an attempt to “minimize extended impacts.”
Death toll in winter storm rises to 17
Authorities have reported four additional weather-related deaths, bringing the number of people who have died in the winter storm to 17.
The four deaths occurred in Kansas and Nebraska, and were all auto-related, officials have said.
Nebraska State Patrol confirmed one weather-related death. Additional details have not been released. A spokesperson for the agency said it has responded to over 600 weather-related incidents.
Kansas Highway Patrol said Friday that three fatal crashes occurred Wednesday and were all thought to be weather-related.
In Republic County, a man died after his car was struck by another vehicle that lost control and jackknifed. His car was pushed off the road and into a tree. He was identified as 60-year-old Fred Mikesell of Scandia, Kansas, officials said.
The driver of the other vehicle was uninjured, according to Highway Patrol.
Zachary Bealer, 33, of Kansas City, Missouri, died after he lost control of his truck and spun across the median of Interstate 70 in Geary County. His truck was then hit by two other vehicles and came to rest 80 feet down an embankment, Highway Patrol said.
No injuries were reported among the people in the two other vehicles.
Grant Lysell-Alkire, 21, of Lindsborg, Kansas, died after the SUV he was a passenger in went into a ditch on Interstate 135 in Saline County and overturned. The 16-year-old driver had a minor injury, according to Highway Patrol.
Deaths have also been reported in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Ohio.
New York governor deploys National Guard to Erie County amid blizzard
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said late Friday she was deploying 54 members of the National Guard to assist residents amid the winter storm and ferocious blizzard that has hit the region.
The Guard members would assist Erie County residents, especially those who have emergency medical appointments and need help traveling, Hochul said in a statement.
They were expected on the ground "in a matter of hours," the statement said.
“I want to assure New Yorkers that all of our state resources are deployed to help with storm recovery efforts, and we are coordinating closely with local officials across the state. Remember: stay off the roads and take precautions to stay safe in your home.”
Erie County, and the county seat of Buffalo, have been experiencing blizzard conditions and lake-effect snow with the winter storm that have reduced visibility to zero.
The area has also been subjected to bitter cold, with wind chills of minus 10 to minus 30 degrees, and gusts of up to 65 mph downwind of Lake Erie, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
Driving bans are in effect for Erie County, as well as Niagara, Genesee and Orleans counties, and the National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for those counties and others. It is set to expire at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Total snow accumulations of 4 to 5 across the Buffalo area and 1 to 3 feet in surrounding areas, according to the weather service.
"Travel will be impossible in the lake effect snow band. Areas of blowing snow will produce zero visibility," the weather service said. "Very strong winds will cause extensive tree damage and power outages."
About 25,500 people in Erie County were without power early Saturday, according to outage tracking site PowerOutage.us. Other surrounding counties are also experiencing outages, according to the site.
More than 10,000 flights delayed, 5,700 delayed amid winter storm
Thousands of people were faced with flight delays and cancellations Friday as the winter storm blasted the country.
About 10,400 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were delayed Friday and an additional 5,753 were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.
The site showed 1,047 flights already canceled for Christmas Eve.
Hundreds of the delays and cancellations were for flights departing from or arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to FlightAware. All three of the airport's runways were closed Friday morning because of freezing rain and temperatures.
By 3:40 p.m., the airport said it had reopened two of the runways. On Friday night it said it expected to anticipate returning to "near normal" operations on Saturday.
Flights through Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and Denver International Airport and LaGuardia Airport also accounted for several hundred delays and cancellations, according to FlightAware.
A 79 mph wind gust hit the Buffalo area, meteorologist says
The strongest wind gust to slam a populated area Friday was recorded just south of Buffalo, where a blast of frigid air was clocked at 79 mph, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.
The gust was recorded just after 10 a.m., said meteorologist Marc Chenard.
A gust of 72 mph also hit the Cleveland area Friday, he said. The strongest wind blast overall — 151 mph — was recorded atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, one of the tallest peaks east of the Mississippi, he said.
Winds blowing off the water or high in the mountains tend to be the strongest because there’s less friction to slow them down, he said.
Service interruptions taking place in Kentucky where extreme cold is straining power grid
The extreme cold is “straining the regional power grid,” resulting in outages, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday night.
Louisville Gas & Electric and KU said they were performing “service interruptions in intervals” across the areas it serves in an attempt to “minimize extended impacts.”
The utility said it expected the outages would last about 30 minutes.
Residents were asked to turn down their thermostats and turn off unnecessary lights, including Christmas lights, to help conserve energy.
An outage map showed 3,908 customers without power shortly after 11 p.m. It wasn’t immediately clear if the outages were part of the interruptions.
Temperatures were expected to be between 0 and 5 degrees Friday night with a wind chill as low as minus 24, according to the National Weather Service office in Louisville.
It was below zero in Denver for more than 41 hours, weather officials say
Denver recorded its lowest maximum temperature ever and saw just over 41 consecutive hours of sub-zero temperatures during the winter storm, the National Weather Service said Friday.
The temperature of minus 6 was recorded Thursday, the agency said.
The below-zero temperatures stretched from Wednesday at 5:34 p.m. to Friday at 10:50 a.m. and included a wind chill reading of minus 43, the agency said.
The city also saw its third largest temperature change in a single day on record, falling from 51 degrees on Wednesday to minus 10.
Runway closed, flights canceled at Washington's Bellingham International Airport
All commercial flights were canceled Friday at Washington state's Bellingham International Airport and the runway was closed due to freezing rain.
The Port of Bellingham said at 4:57 p.m. local time that crews were working to reopen the runway as soon as possible.
4 dead in pileup with at least 46 vehicles in Ohio, authorities say
Four people died and multiple others were injured in a massive car crash involving at least 46 vehicles, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said Friday.
The crash occurred in the eastbound lanes on the Ohio Turnpike in Erie County. Both directions of a stretch of the turnpike remained closed at 9:10 p.m., at least seven hours after the crash.
Fifteen commercial vehicles were being cleared from the turnpike late Friday, and “white-out conditions persist,” the agency said.
More than 1.1 million homes and businesses are in the dark
More than 1.1 million homes and businesses were without power across the country on Friday night, a slight improvement from earlier in the day, when 1.4 million customers were in the dark, according to poweroutage.us.
Maine led the country, with 257,332 outages, according to the site. There were nearly 110,000 outages in New Hampshire and roughly 92,000 in New York.
From Michigan to North Carolina, more than a dozen other states hit by a winter storm and plummeting temperatures saw significant outages, according to the site.