In many states, conditions are too dangerous for travel, but millions of Americans have taken to the roads or rushed to airports to travel ahead of the holidays
A blizzard of rare severity is hitting the US today, causing dangerous conditions and disrupting train and plane routes across much of the country, just twenty-four hours before Christmas.
As of Friday morning local time, nearly 240 million people, or 70% of the population, had received a severe weather warning, according to the US Weather Service (NWS).
In many states, conditions are very dangerous for travel, but millions of Americans have taken to the roads or rushed to airports to travel ahead of the holidays.
In New York State, a curfew has been issued in Erie County.
“We stay at home (…) I can’t see anything on the other side of the roadJennifer Orlando, from the city of Hamburg, where the ban is in place, told AFP.
The thermometer showed -8 degrees Celsius. The woman said that because a car crashed into a utility pole, power was out in the area for about four hours.
More than 1 million Americans were without power at noon, mostly in North and South Carolina, Connecticut and Texas, according to the specialist website Poweroutage.us.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden called on Americans to “listen to the warnings” at the local level and follow the instructions of the authorities, stressing that this storm is “serious”.
In total, about 112 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Several states have already declared states of emergency, including New York, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia and North Carolina.
“People should stay at home, not venture out into the streets,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told CNN this morning. “Your family wants to see you home for Christmas but most of all they want to see you alive,” he added. Because of the snow and strong winds “we could very quickly have blizzard conditions“, he warned, assuring that the National Guard has already been mobilized to deal with any problems.
The governor confirmed that three people were killed on Kentucky roads. In Oklahoma, at least two people were killed on the road.
Snowfall is reported in the northern US, mainly in the Great Lakes region. But forecasters say this weather phenomenon stretches from the Canadian border to the Mexican border in the south and from the Pacific coast in the northwest to the Atlantic in the east.
The low barometric pressure is caused by the collision of two air masses: a very cold one coming from the Arctic and a tropical one from the Gulf of Mexico. What makes the conditions extraordinary is that the atmospheric pressure this time dropped very quickly, in less than 24 hours.
In New York the thermometer showed about 10°C on Friday morning but by the evening it will drop to -10°C.
In Chicago, the temperature hovered around -20°C in the morning. Subzero temperatures were also recorded as far up the Texas coast.
Canada is also bracing for unseasonably cold temperatures. The weather service has issued blizzard warnings for much of the country.
In Alberta (west) and Saskatchewan (central Canada) thermometers showed -40 and -50 degrees Celsius.
RES-EMP
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
