U.S. deep freeze forecast to break Christmas Eve records

Koryx Copper

24/12/2022 10:00

By Rich McKay
       Dec 24 (Reuters) - An arctic blast that has gripped much
of the United States this week, disrupting daily life and
holiday travel for millions of Americans, was expected to
produce the coldest Christmas Eve on record in several cities
from Pennsylvania to Florida.
    Temperatures are forecast to top out on Friday at just 8
degrees Fahrenheit (-13 Celsius) in Pittsburgh, the largest city
in western Pennsylvania, surpassing its previous all-time
coldest Christmas Eve high of 13 F, set in 1983, the National
Weather Service (NWS) said.
    The capital cities of Florida and Georgia - Tallahassee and
Atlanta - were likewise expected to record their coldest daytime
Christmas Eve high temperatures, while Washington, D.C., was
forecast to experience its chilliest Dec. 24 since 1906.
    The flurry of yuletide temperature records were predicted as
a U.S. deep freeze sharpened by perilous wind chills continued
to envelope much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation into
the holiday weekend.
    The arctic cold combined with a "cyclone bomb" of heavy snow
and howling winds roaring out of the Great Lakes region on
Friday and into the Upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys to wreak
havoc on power systems, roadways and commercial air traffic.
    Extreme winter weather was blamed for at least five deaths
on Friday. 
    Two motorists were killed, and numerous others injured, in a
 50-vehicle pileup that shut down the Ohio Turnpike in both
directions during a blizzard near Toledo, forcing an evacuation
of stranded motorists by bus to keep them from freezing in their
cars, officials said.
    Three more weather-related fatalities were confirmed in
neighboring Kentucky - two from car accidents and one a homeless
person who died of exposure.
    Freezing rain and ice from a separate storm in the Pacific
Northwest made travel treacherous there as well on Friday.
    BORDER TO BORDER
    From the Canadian to the Mexican border and coast to coast,
some 240 million people in all were under winter weather
warnings and advisories of some sort on Friday, according to the
weather service.
    The NWS said its map of existing or impending meteorological
hazards "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather
warnings and advisories ever."
    With energy systems across the country strained by rising
demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines,
as many as 1.5 million U.S. homes and businesses were left
without power on Friday, according to tracking site
Poweroutage.us. 
    The disruptions upended daily routines and holiday plans for
millions of Americans during one of the busiest travel periods
of the year.
    The American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7
million people planned to venture 50 miles (80 km) or more from
home between Friday and Jan. 2. But stormy weather heading into
the weekend likely ended up keeping many of them at home.
    More than 5,700 U.S. flights were canceled on Friday,
according to flight-tracking service FlightAware, while blizzard
conditions virtually paralyzed road travel in some regions.
    The city of Buffalo and its surrounding county on the edge
of Lake Erie in western New York imposed a driving ban, and all
three Buffalo-area border crossing bridges were closed to
inbound traffic from Canada due to the weather.    
    The severe weather prompted authorities across the country
to open warming centers in libraries and police stations while
scrambling to expand temporary shelter for the homeless. The
challenge was compounded by the influx of migrants crossing the
U.S. southern border by the thousands in recent weeks.
    Bitter cold intensified by high winds extended through the
Deep South to the U.S.-Mexico border, plunging wind chill
factors to single digits Fahrenheit (minus 18 to minus 13
Celsius) in El Paso, Texas. Exposure to such conditions can
cause frostbite within minutes.
 (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by
Gabriella Borter, Tim Reid, Lisa Baertlein, Erwin Seba, Susan
Heavey, Laila Kearney, Alyson McClaren, Aleksandra Michalska, 
and Scott DiSavino; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan
Oatis, Aurora Ellis and William Mallard)
 ((steve.gorman@thomsonreuters.com; 310-491-7256; Reuters
Messaging: steve.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))