U.S. deep freeze forecast to break Christmas Eve records (updated)

Koryx Copper

24/12/2022 15:26

(Recasts lede, weather in paragraph 2 and traffic fatalities in
paragraph 6, updates power outages)
    By Rich McKay
       Dec 24 (Reuters) - 
    An arctic blast gripped much of the United States on
Saturday driving power outages, flight cancellations and car
wrecks, as plummeting temperatures were predicted to bring the
coldest Christmas Eve on record to several cities from
Pennsylvania to Georgia. 
    Temperatures are forecast to top out on Saturday at just 7
degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 Celsius) in Pittsburgh, surpassing
its previous all-time coldest Christmas Eve high of 13 F, set in
1983, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
    Cities in Georgia and South Carolina - Athens and Charleston
- 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 1989.
    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 freeze already produced fatal car collisions around the
country with CNN reporting at least 14 dead from weather-related
accidents. 
        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 wreaked
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 1.8 million U.S. homes and businesses were left
without power as of early Saturday morning, 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.
    At least 3,741 U.S. flights were canceled on Saturday, with
total delays tallying 10,297, according to flight-tracking
service FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were cancelled on
Friday, the flight tracking said.
    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
Joel Schectman, 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, William Mallard
and Diane Craft)
 ((steve.gorman@thomsonreuters.com; 310-491-7256; Reuters
Messaging: steve.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))