MISSION, Kan. — Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.
Locally, temperatures were expected to start falling Friday evening, dropping to 53 (12 Celsius) degrees by 7 a.m. Saturday. On Christmas Day, the National Weather Service says the temperature will dip to 50 (10 Celsius), and will remain below 55 (12 Celsius) all day. It won’t climb above 60 (15 Celsius) until Monday, according to forecasters.
More than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday, the NWS said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.
Power outages have left more than 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports.
And nearly 3,900 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays. Some airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, closed runways.
The huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. And in Mexico, migrants waited near the U.S. border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.
Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
Even though fleets of snow plows and salt trucks have been deployed, driving was hazardous and sometimes deadly. Kansas City police spokeswoman Donna Drake says a minivan driver died Thursday after loosing control on icy streets and overturning into a creek.
Activists also were rushing to get the homeless out of the cold. In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing efforts to check on unhoused people who have received tents, propane heaters and other supplies through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants.
Robledo and volunteers build the tents modeled on ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor, and offer them to people living on the streets in Chicago.
“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room. But it’s a huge step up from what they had before,” Robledo said.
Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday at a shelter and a warming center both run in Detroit by Cass Community Social Services. Together, the facilities are designed to hold a total of 100 people.
“This is a lot of extra people” but “you can’t” turn anyone away, executive director Faith Fowler told The Associated Press.
The plummeting temperatures closed the city’s zoo and an art museum. To the north of Detroit, a rescue team used a Hovercraft to reach an injured swan Thursday that became frozen to ice on a lake. And on the other side of Michigan, at least 6 inches of snow fell overnight in the Grand Rapids area, with another 2 to 4 inches possible every 12 hours “probably through Christmas morning,” said Jerry Byrne of the Kent County Road Commission.
In Portland, Oregon, officials opened four emergency shelters. It was so cold in the city that Taylor Bailey lost all sensation in her hands as she cycled to her job at at iconic bike rental, repair and touring store Cycle Portland in the frigid temperatures.
“It’s the wind, really, that’s so cold. The wind is absolutely bitter,” she said Thursday, adding that even her gloves didn’t help.
All bus service was suspended in the greater Seattle area Friday morning due to an ice storm that made travel treacherous.
The weather service is predicting the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes online Friday. Some surrounding districts canceled classes altogether.
In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem late Thursday activated the state’s National Guard to haul firewood from the Black Hills Forest Service to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as some members were stranded in their homes with dwindling fuel.
Scot Eisenbraun, who runs a farm and ranch near Wall in western South Dakota, said he’s lost several cattle in recent days. The cold is life-threatening if you are caught outside, he said, so people travel in groups of two vehicles in case one gets stranded.
“Dress really warm and don’t get stuck outside really long,” he said.
Buffalo, New York, Mayor Byron Brown urged people to stay home as meteorologists warned that the city could see 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters) of snow through the weekend.
While New England was being spared the numbing cold and snow, heavy rain and wind gusting to more than 60 mph (96 kph) knocked out power to thousands. About 150,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had no electricity as of Friday morning, according to the region’s major utilities. There were another 100,000 outages in Connecticut.
Hundreds of utility and tree crews were deployed, but the high winds hampered them. The limit for using bucket trucks is typically 25 mph (40 kph) to 35 mph (56 kph), a utility official said.
In Maine, gusts approaching 70 mph (113 kph) were reported along the coast Friday morning. Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast, the wind topped 130 mph (210 kph).
It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak canceled service for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing early.
“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said at a news conference.
