The United States is facing a “once in a generation” winter storm, as described on Thursday by the National Weather Service (NWS), which mainly affects the west of the country with a wave of extreme cold.
US President Joe Biden had already warned Americans on Thursday to take the storm “extremely seriously” and follow the recommendations of the authorities.
“This is really a very severe weather alert. And it goes from Oklahoma to Wyoming, and from Wyoming to Maine. And there are real consequences. So I encourage everyone to follow local advisories,” he told reporters at the Oval. Office in the White House of Commons in Washington.
Biden stressed that this is not a normal snow day, but something “serious”, and revealed that his government has been trying to contact the 26 governors of the affected states.
According to the local press, temperatures of up to -50°C were reached in northern Idaho, while some of the country’s main cities will face extreme conditions on Friday with -36.6°C in Chicago (Illinois), -35° C in Minneapolis (Minnesota) and -29°C in Denver (Colorado).
In today’s latest update, the NWS forecast a “major freak storm” over the weekend, bringing snow, high winds and “dangerous” low temperatures.
The weather phenomenon extends from the northern Great Basin, a watershed that encompasses Nevada, parts of Utah and California, Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming, to the northern Midwest, the Great Lakes, and the central Appalachian mountains and from North.
The NWS said there will be “an unprecedented dangerous cold air mass” from an arctic front hitting the Ohio and Tennessee valleys tonight.
According to the Flightaware website, there were a total of 1,724 flight cancellations in the United States.
The most affected airports are O’Hare and Chicago Midway (Chicago) and Denver.
The airlines warned that snow, icy winds and low temperatures could affect travel from Seattle, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts, or South Carolina.
Source: TSF
