US winter storm: Icy blast hits 200 million Americans
Some 200 million Americans are feeling the icy grip of a massive winter storm that has been linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.
More than 1.5 million people lost power and thousands of flights were cancelled on Friday. The vast storm extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec.
A bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure plummets, has brought blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes on the US-Canada border.
In Canada, Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast, with power cut to hundreds of thousands.
Much of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said its Friday map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever”.
Temperatures in Elk Park, Montana, dropped to -50F (-45C), while the town of Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.
It was 1F (-17C) in the snow-covered community on Friday night. Emily, a bartender at Smitty’s Hell Saloon, told the BBC: “It’s pretty cold here, but we’re having a hell of a time.”
In South Dakota, snowed-in Native Americans burned clothes for warmth after running out of fuel, said tribal officials.
Heavy snowfall was forecast in areas of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Buffalo, New York, was expecting at least 35in (89cm). The National Weather Service reported “zero mile” visibility there and posted video of white-out conditions.
“We don’t even want to be parked in it, you *definitely* don’t want to be driving in it. Seriously,” it said in the tweet.
More than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings, said the NWS.
Coastal flooding has been seen in New England, New York and New Jersey.
Even the usually milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia were experiencing hard-freeze warnings. A number of the storm-related fatalities have involved road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in Ohio that killed four motorists. Another four died in separate crashes in the state.
Travel problems across the country were being exacerbated by a shortage of snow plough operators, with low pay rates being blamed.
More than 5,900 US flights were cancelled on Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, as flyers battled to make it home for Christmas. Another 1,200 Saturday flights have already been cancelled.
By Friday night one million customers had no electricity across the US, according to PowerOutage.us.
Utilities throughout the Tennessee Valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power.
The NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days. Decades-old records have already been matched:
- Denver, Colorado, dropped to -24F on Thursday, its lowest point since the 1990s. Craig McBrierty, 34, who is originally from Scotland, but now lives in Denver, told the BBC it is “colder than I have ever experienced”
- Wichita, Kansas, recorded its coldest wind chill (-32F) since 2000
- Nashville, Tennessee, saw its temperatures plunge to below zero for the first time in 26 years
- Casper, Wyoming, set a new record low on Tuesday of -42F
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John
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Welcome to the third Grand Solar Minimum (GSM) since the 1600’s. The Super Eddy Grand Solar Minimum is just beginning, and will probable last until the mid 2050’s. What to expect during a SGSM:
Bitter Cold
Extremely hot
1000 year Floods
Huge amounts of Snow and Ice in some locations
Droughts
High Winds
Very Large Hail
Huge to almost Complete Crop Losses
Starvation / Disease
Loss of Life
Social Upheaval
Human Migration, Fall of Governments, War, Electromagnetic Displays, Increased Large
Earthquakes, VEI3 to VEI7 Volcanic Eruptions, Atmospheric Compression and High Cosmic Ray Environment.
The reason most people can’t grasp a SGSM is that have not experienced anything like what is coming. Most people don’t want to believe something if it doesn’t fit into their daily routine and beliefs. Just reminder: IT’S NOT YOU \ IT’S NOT CO2 \IT’S THE SUN
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Alan Stewart
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Correct John and then there’s the next Pleistocene glaciation. It will destroy, as in the past, more life than AGW/CC.
Xmas and New Years.
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Tom
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We have had numerous ice ages before so massive cold waves aren’t that surprising. Make a big deal about it if it happens in July.
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John Thomas Bakkila
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I live in the Keweenaw area of Michigan’s upper peninsula. We are currently getting hit by the so-called “Bomb Cyclone”. I’ve lived my life in Michigan, which is known, famously, for having unusual and severe winters. The weather event we are experiencing now is very common, and actually, not as severe as other winters…even the last one. But things are just getting started.
The Keweenaw peninsula juts out into the midst of the mightiest of freshwater lakes; Lake Superior. The Great Lakes basin is unique on Earth, which means unique weather will always be a part of living here. My father grew up here, starting in 1939 when life was a little different, but the weather was no different. People lived through it without complaining about it. My grandparents had even less. The farmhouse and farmland are still there…still in the family…and the way my grandparents lived was even more primitive…no plumbing and wood heat. Brutal winters were the stuff of legend, according to gramps tall tales. But there are many famous photos of deep, horrific winters here, and today’s event is the same as it ever was.
I don’t know all the physical mechanisms that are in play to account for weather, but I was always curious to know exactly how many more miles from the Sun the North Pole is compared to the summer solstice. A few hundred? A few thousand?
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Robin
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It’s like 1977 all over again, with the recent news sounding almost word for word like the commentary in this video, and with Buffalo featured in a good part of the presentation. Big snowdrifts, record cold and snowfall, people frozen in cars, etc etc.
For younger folks, 1977 was the peak of the ‘New Ice Age’ mania, with scientists suggesting that coal dust could be spread over the Arctic ice to encourage melting, and many other such strategies to prevent the glaciers covering North America, and newspapers and magazines insisting that we ‘Do Something Now’ or the world would end for human habitation in a few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mJPA7Y67FE
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