Twelve dead from the historic snowfall in the USA

At least 12 people have lost their lives as a result of the severe weather of historic proportions affecting the USA.

Four of them died in a car wreck in Ohio.

Heavy snowfall and very cold temperatures have been the main features of the weather over the past 24 hours across the US.

Three people died in weather-related crashes in Oklahoma, while three others were killed on icy roads in Kentucky, Fox Weather reported.

Another person was killed when their vehicle overturned in Missouri, and a person in Texas died after prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures.

In Ohio, at least four people were killed and several others injured in a massive 50-car pileup Friday amid treacherous “whiteout conditions,” the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

The snowstorm of rare severity hitting the US is causing dangerous conditions and disrupting train and plane routes in much of the country.

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 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.

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