High-Temperature Weather in the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians During the Cold Front. Emergency Power Supply in Texas after the 2021 Winter Storm

The storm has spanned the whole of Canada and the US from the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

“This is really a very serious weather alert here,” said President Biden, speaking to reporters Thursday morning in front of a national map of wind chill forecasts. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is not everyday stuff.

The cold front has wreaked havoc in the Rockies, with temperatures plunging at record rates. On Wednesday night in Cheyenne, Wyo., the temperature dropped more than 30 degrees in just nine minutes.

Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming have declared states of emergency. Governors in Missouri, Colorado and Indiana activated the National Guard.

In Texas where the power grid was overwhelmed and more than 200 people died in a winter storm in 2021, officials said they had expected it to hold up, despite forecasts for cold weather but little precipitation.

“The grid is ready and reliable,” said Peter Lake, chairman of the state’s Public Utility Commission, in a Wednesday news conference. We expect to have enough generation to meet demand throughout this winter weather event.

The Great Lakes Snow Removal Disaster in Denver and Midway, and its Impact on Area Flights, Shelters, and the Stability of the Streetcar

Still, strong gusty winds initially up to 60 mph accompanying the snow downwind from the Great Lakes will continue to make for extremely dangerous conditions on the road.

Nearly 5,300 Friday flights have already been canceled as of 7:30 p.m. ET, after nearly 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

No airport canceled more than Denver International Airport, where the recorded temperature of minus 24 degrees was the coldest recorded since 1990. At DIA, well over 500 flights — more than a quarter of all flights in or out of the airport — had so far been canceled Thursday. More than 400 were delayed.

The NWS also forecast lake-effect snow downwind from the Great Lakes as well as “heavy mixed precipitation to impact the Pacific Northwest and the Northern High Plains” over the weekend.

City officials stressed that crews were working around the clock to keep flights moving at the city’s major airports, O’Hare and Midway, both of which serve as hubs for major airlines.

“These hard-working individuals will have at their disposal more than 350 pieces of snow removal equipment, more than 400,000 gallons of liquid deicer for runways and taxiways, and more than 5,000 tons of salt,” said Andrew Velasquez, the city’s deputy aviation commissioner.

Hundreds of miles away in Kansas City, the winter weather brought only an inch or two of snow. The city’s homeless services were expected to be putTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was putTrademarkiaTrademarkias was put

Several area shelters had added beds this week; still, many reported being at or near capacity. Instead, some people sought shelter on the city’s streetcar, which was operating Thursday after crews had worked from 4 a.m. to clear the route and platforms.

“The library is closed. Pete said that he did not have a permanent place to live and that he would most likely get kicked out if he went into a parking garage. There is not much you can do.

The Montana Cattle Crisis During the Fourth and Fifth Snowstorms in the Last Three Months: Snow, Fluctuations and Intermittents

In Montana, the sun was out Thursday as the snow had moved eastward toward the Midwest. The cold will persist until the weekend, according to forecasts.

This is a worse winter than we have seen before, but it’s not new to Montana. We’ve been running cattle for a long time, so we kind of know how to get through stuff like this,” Willemsma said.

Hank said he would be out in the cold to keep hay for his animals.

Reporting from Bruce Konviser, WPLN’s Paige Pfleger and Blake Farmer, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and David Schaper and the Associated Press was used in this report.

Poor visibility and ice-covered streets make it hard for drivers to navigate the storm’s path, which is expected to intensify over the course of Friday. Coastal flooding is also an issue, particularly along the shorelines of the Northeast.

All modes of travel – planes, trains and automobiles – were being disrupted: There were hundreds of miles of road closures and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. In New York, flooding along the Long Island Rail Road forced part of the Long Beach branch to temporarily shut down.

Mick, the Buffalo, New York, resident, said that Christmas is canceled because of the snowstorm expected to last through Sunday. “All family and friends agreed it’s safer this way.”

Highway Collision with a Dodge Caravan: Four Dead and One Stripped on I-75 in Kansas City, Missouri, and One More Involved

Four people died on Saturday morning when a semi crossed the median and crashed into an SUV and a pickup on I-75 in Ohio.

In Kansas City, one person died after losing control of their Dodge Caravan on icy roads Thursday afternoon, according to the Kansas City Police Department. “The Dodge went down the embankment, over the cement retaining wall and landed upside down, submerged in Brush Creek,” police said in a statement.

From Maine to Seattle the storm knocked out power. But heat and lights were steadily being restored across the U.S. Less than 200,000 customers were without electricity on Sunday, down from a peak of 1.7 million.

The National Weather Service has created a graphic that depicts the extent of winter weather warnings and advisories.

Hochul said at the press conference that the kitchen sink storm was throwing everything at them but the kitchen sink. “We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that mother nature could wallop at us this weekend.”

At Brian Trzeciak’s home in New York the storm was doing its job, living up to warnings. Buffalo’s airport, just to the north, reported zero visibility shortly after noon on Friday.

A Cold and Weak Christmas Day for Northern Florida, and a Weather Warning for Eastern Washington, the Mid-Atlantic, and Seattle

He said that his mother lives 30 minutes away, as do his sister and her family in the other direction. We never get together on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but we all stay in the same house until Monday.

Christmas Day will be a cold day for a large part of Florida. It will be coldest Christmas Day since 1983 for Miami, Tampa, Orlando and West Palm Beach.

As it treks east across the country, the storm is expected to become a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly strengthening storm which drops 24 millibars of pressure within 24 hours. The storm’s pressure was forecast to match that of a Category 2 hurricane as it moved into the Great Lakes on Friday morning.

• It will remain very cold: Friday will bring record-low temperatures in large swaths of the US, including from the Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and stretching across large sections of the east from the Southeast, through the Southern to Central Appalachians and into the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service.

The Upper Midwest will have heavy snow and high winds. Parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota are affected by the warning. The city of Buffalo will be under a weather warning on Friday. Such warnings go in effect when snow and wind of 35 mph will reduce visibility to less than a quarter of a mile for at least three hours.

• Whiteout conditions: Blizzard conditions may exist even if snowfall stops, because high winds can pick up snow already on the ground and cause low visibility.

A winter storm warning is in effect for western Washington, including Seattle, until 7 p.m. PST Friday. There’s a chance of more snow and ice accumulating to a quarter of an inch. The precipitation will begin as snow and then it will be sleet or freezing rain. Travel will be difficult as more power outages are likely.

Nearly half of all flights into and out of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were canceled when there was ice on the runways. Further, all express services for Sound Transit, a regional transportation network in the Seattle metro area, were suspended Friday due to the icy conditions.

The cold temperatures combined with the dangerous wind chills will create a potential hazard for travelers who become stranded, people who work outside, livestock and pets.

If you owned a walk-in freezer, you could get in half-naked and sleep for a while.

Frozen facial hair on a pedestrian bridge in Nashville, the first week of December without power for the holiday season, attorney general counsel Robert E. Wooding said

Sharisse Wooding said her flight home from New York City was canceled and she would rebook for Monday.

She lingered at La Guardia Airport as she tried to regroup. This is not how I will spend Christmas.

In Nashville, a layer of ice and snow accompanied by zero-degree temperatures left the city’s normally boisterous downtown relatively quiet, without the usual throng of tourists for the holidays.

KyleElliott, 29, was walking on a pedestrian bridge above the Cumberland River with a guitar strapped to him. He couldn’t hear his feet fifteen minutes into the walk.

Mr. Elliott said that he has never experienced weather like this before. I’ve never felt my facial hair freeze before. I have now.

Over 50,000 customers in Nashville were without power on Friday and state officials urged businesses and residents to reduce usage.

Huddle in dark-cold homes of a buffalo family huddled in a storm-water flood at Marblehead Harbor, north of Boston

Angus cattle hurried up a pasture trail on Steve and Tara Agan’s farm about an hour south of Des Moines on Friday, eager to feast on silage and alfalfa.

Ms. Agan said her biggest challenge was keeping her fingers warm while bottle-feeding some of the calves. “But you don’t have a choice. You have to come out. The cows are fed the same as in the summer in the winter.

The postal service requires letter carrier to complete their routes by foot on Friday, according to Goran Nedelj Serbian, a mail carrier in Chicago.

The cold is making it difficult for him to use his scanner because his fingers are getting cold, his glasses are malfunctioning and his gloves are getting cold.

Many New Englanders responded to the storm with a mixture of stoicism and acceptance, even as trees were down and roads were closed. At the Landing, a brown-shingled restaurant at the edge of Marblehead Harbor, north of Boston, Dina Sweeney, the manager, stood outside watching the gray water heave and crash through the metal grates and railings at the harbor’s edge, scattering seaweed across the parking lot.

The structure of the building that allowed ocean water to pass into and out caused significant damage as a result of the flooding.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/23/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/in-buffalo-families-huddle-in-dark-cold-homes

Winter Storm Snow Weather in Buffalo Families Huddle in Dark Homes: A Case Study of a Lossy Dog During a Winter Skirmion

Linney awoke at her parents’ rural home in Efland, 40 minutes northwest of Raleigh, hoping to start the day with a yoga class, but learned they had no electricity.

Ms. Linney’s parents live on a 10-acre property and get their water from a well. But no power meant no water to pump it. Ms. Linney, who had traveled from her home in California for the holidays, stopped in Durham to get lunch and a good deal of bottled water.

The power came back on at her parents’ house by midafternoon, but Ms. Linney was concerned it might go out again, particularly as temperatures were expected to plunge to 9 degrees on Friday night.

Ms Linney said that they were going to keep the stove on. If the power went out again, she said, they may have to ask to bunk down at a neighbor’s house.

In Atlanta, where residents are used to the occasional cold snap, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency this week, prohibiting price gouging of heating fuels and warning of black ice on the roads.

At Ponce City Market, a trendy indoor-outdoor mall along the Atlanta BeltLine, the city’s recreation trail, most of the action was inside, as shoppers ran errands two days before Christmas.

At an outpost of Marine Layer, a clothing store, Jennifer Velasco, an employee, was waiting on customers in a poofy winter coat and a white wool hat. Every time the door opened, the wind and cold would come in. Ms. Velasco, who moved to Atlanta from Houston a few months ago, was not pleased.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/23/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/in-buffalo-families-huddle-in-dark-cold-homes

Orlando – a Warming Center for the Cold Cold Snap: a 911 Response to a Hurricane-Induced Planned Emergency Shelter

The emergency shelters were set up for people who did not have the basic necessities such as food and supplies.

The weekend weather is expected to fall into the 30s in Central Florida, a worry for Keisaun Johnson, who doesn’t have a place to stay with three children, a dog and no stable housing situation.

She and her family went to a homeless shelter this week in downtown Orlando, a facility that is doubling as a warming center, to gather supplies for the cold snap.

She said, “We have jackets, blankets, all the hygiene stuff, Clothes, socks, everything.” I am 100 percent better than I was before, because it was really scary.

Travelers said that they were surprised by the lack of chaos at the airport, as lines seemed to be shorter than the day before.

“I don’t think we’d be able to get in the door”, said Joe Netzel, 40, of Chicago while waiting with his wife and daughter at the airport. Our flight is on time.

The Weather Prediction center said temperatures will be 25 to 35 degrees below average from east of the Rockies to the Appalachians.

At least six people were reportedly killed in vehicle crashes, with at least four dead in a massive pileup on the Ohio Turnpike involving about 50 vehicles.

Winter Storm Travel in New Jersey, a “Life-threatening dangerous event” for Albany, NJ, and the Edison Electric Power Reconnection Center

In the South, the wind chills were minus 20 degrees and gusts of wind knocked out power to thousands of homes. Emergency responders asked people in the area to stay home.

The challenge of getting the power restored in weather like this is significant, as is the fact that it’s the vice president of security and preparedness at the Edison.

“Sometimes accessing these areas can be really challenging with downed power lines, with downed trees, with very icy roads. … If the wind is over 35 miles an hour, crews can’t climb in bucket trucks. “So those things will make it hard for crews to get out there and get the power back on.”

Flooding as high as 9 feet was recorded along the coast in New Jersey, because of heavy rains and high winds. Interior locations along the Hudson River also flooded.

“This is a life-threatening dangerous event,” Hochul said Friday afternoon at a news conference in Albany. Protect yourselves and your family. Do not travel until the roads are reopened, that you know it’s safe.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/24/1145419116/winter-storm-travel-power-outage-dangerous-conditions

The Buffalo Flood and Rescue Center in Erie County, New York, reported by two people killed by a Frozen Storm on Saturday night

“So that affects anyone who has a connecting flight, and we’re going to see a lot of people missing connecting flights because of these long delays,” he said.

Buffalo, which is one of the snowiest cities in the country, is a place where people pride themselves in weathering extreme winter conditions. The city and the region were left reeling by a fierce and wide storm that struck parts of the country and wreaked havoc in Western New York, stranding hundreds in their cars and homes.

There are three storm deaths reported in New York. Two died in separate incidents Friday night when emergency medical personnel could not get to their homes in time for medical emergencies, Poloncarz said Saturday morning. The third death was confirmed Saturday afternoon by a county spokesman.

Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said on Saturday that this storm may be the worst in the community’s history.

Emergency workers were still rescuing people from cars as darkness fell on Saturday — some of them trapped since Friday. Some people in the area were about to spend another night at home without power, if the snow continued to fall.

More than 25,000 customers in the Buffalo area remained without electricity as of 4 p.m. Saturday, Mr. Poloncarz said. Some power stations may not be restored until late Monday as crews were expected to fix some by Saturday night. The chief of the Erie County Sheriff’s Department said emergency workers had made at least 50 rescues from homes and cars between Friday and Saturday.

The Struggle of Staggered Autonomous Traffic in the New York City After the Superstorm. The Buffalo, Fla., Police and Fire Departments Against an Extreme Weather Event

The struggle was complicated by drivers ignoring travel bans and becoming stuck or stranded, blocking roads cleared for emergency traffic, Mr. Poloncarz said.

County officials urged people to stay put, even without heat or power, and asked the National Guard to assist with rescue operations. The governor of New York said that the airport would be closed until Monday.

Tommy Bellonte, 37, who lives in Buffalo, came out of his house on Saturday morning to check on a neighbor. You can’t get used to it.

The storm that hit Friday caused a lot of flooding in the city, with some people in the beachfront areas facing the prospect of leaving for Christmas.

At least 22 deaths have been attributed to dangerous weather conditions since Wednesday, and some residents in the Northeast are spending the holiday without sufficient heat or hot water as extremely cold temperatures persist.

After spending Friday night huddled under blankets in their homes, some residents sought refuge in warming shelters that were opened by the cities and towns.

After a day without power, Shantel Moncrief and her husband attempted to sleep in their apartment in south Nashville on Friday night layered in sweaters and blankets. They were too chilly to rest so they moved into their car at 2 am and moved to her mother’s house at 6 am.

Cone Dison Asks New York City Customers to Conserve Energy: The Ellis Family’s Christmas Eve Flight in the Snow at La Guardia Airport

At La Guardia Airport in New York, more than 50 flights were canceled Saturday morning, and travelers prepared to spend Christmas Eve at the airport or in nearby hotels.

The Ellis family arrived at the airport at 3 a.m. with their children. Hours later, their flight was canceled, and each member of the family was rebooked on a different flight, said Mr. Ellis.

The family decided to rent a car and drive to their home in Nashville. The cost would be very high but he did not mind paying it.

When darkness fell on Saturday in Western New York, so did the temperatures, making it even harder for workers to restore power and clear roads. With snow forecast to continue, and travel bans still in effect, stores were empty of last-minute shoppers, and streets mostly silent.

Frank Anderson, 50, was stuck in deep snow in his large white pickup truck on Saturday for the second time since wrapping up his shift as a prison guard.

While still wearing his jacket with a New York State Corrections and Community supervision emblem on his left sleeve, he was unable to make it back to his wife and three children, as he had his truck stuck on ice on Hertel Avenue. He was about “a mile from home” in the suburb of Tonawanda.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/24/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/con-edison-asks-new-york-city-customers-to-conserve-energy

The PJM Interconnection Christmas Day Snowstorm: State Law Enforcement, Energy Consumption, Power Outages, and National Guard Responses in New York

Euan Ward , Eliza Fawcett , Isabella Grullón Paz , Bob Chiarito, Jamie McGee, Ellen Yan, April Rubin, Sharon Dunten and Maria Jimenez Moya contributed reporting.

The power grid operator in the eastern half of the country asked customers to conserve power and to set their thermostat lower on Saturday and Sunday because usage was straining capacity.

The operator, PJM Interconnection, serves about 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and warned rolling blackouts could happen if the strain becomes too much.

The Department of Energy declared an emergency Friday when a shortage of electricity in Texas made it impossible to meet environmental emissions standards.

In Jackson, Mississippi, cold weather is making it difficult to repair a large water main break which has caused a loss of water pressure for residents.

They are thanking the crews who are braving the cold on the Christmas Eve night to restore pressure to residents. Their sacrifice does not go unnoticed and is appreciated not only by this administration, but also by every resident who is affected,” the release stated.

In New York’s Erie County – which is seeing blistering blizzard conditions – about 500 motorists found themselves stranded in their vehicles Friday night into Saturday morning, despite a county driving ban put in place during the storm, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

National Guard troops were called in to help “rescue people that are stuck in vehicles,” and to give rides to medical workers so they could relieve colleagues who had been working at hospitals for more than a day, Poloncarz said.

In Seattle, Washington, online videos show cars sliding on the roads and residents walking on the sidewalks, as well as people bumping into each other.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/25/weather/christmas-arctic-winter-storm-power-outages-sunday/index.html

Two deaths in Buffalo, Colorado, resulting from the Buffalo-Goldstone storm and impact of the Great Lakes on the east of the country

The federal government will allow us to seek reimbursements for the extraordinary expenses of all the overtime and we brought in mutual aid from other parts of the state, according to Hochul. The utility crews have come and made sure we have all the vehicles we need.

The two deaths in Buffalo was related to the fact that people couldn’t get to medical attention during the storm, Hochul said.

• Colorado: Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, with one man found near a power transformer of a building possibly looking for warmth, and another in a camp in an alleyway.

The storm system will slowly weaken as it arrives in southeastern Canada, which will cause a domino effect in the east of the country, causing arctic air from Canada to migrate down into the east.

The Arctic blast being felt across the eastern two-thirds of the nation will slowly moderate into Monday, but dangerous conditions will persist Christmas Day.

As the frigid air continues to blast the warm waters of the Great Lakes, lake-effect snows and blizzard conditions are expected to continue, but slowly become less intense.

The Weather Service says another low pressure system coming from the Pacific will cause the next surge of rain to fall in the Pacific Northwest and in northern California by Christmas night.

Daylight revealed cars nearly covered by 6-foot snowdrifts and thousands of houses, some adorned in unlit holiday displays, dark from a lack of power. The National Weather Service said there was a chance for another 1 to 2 feet of snow in some areas through early Monday morning, while gusts of 40 mph were possible.

Some were found in cars, and some on the street in snowbanks. There are people stuck in cars for more than 2 days.

“There’s one warming shelter, but that would be too far for me to get to. “I’m stuck and can’t drive, that’s for sure.” “And you can’t be outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbit.”

William Kless’s snowmobile to a warming shelter in Buffalo, Fla., during a freeze on December 14, 2006: Ditjak and Destiny’s five children

Ditjak was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario with his daughters when his SUV was trapped in Buffalo. Unable to get help, they spent hours with the engine running, buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.

They practically went without fuel by 4 a.m. Saturday, that’s when they decided to go to a nearby shelter. He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, following his footprints through drifts.

I thought “If I stay in this car, I’m going to die here with my kids.” He was emotional as the family entered the shelter doors. It’s something I won’t forget in my life.

After PJM Interconnection said it could meet the day’s peak Electricity demand, there was no need to worry about rolling blackouts in eastern states. The mid-Atlantic grid operator had called for its 65 million consumers to conserve energy amid the freeze Saturday.

In Jackson, Mississippi, city officials on Christmas Day announced that residents must now boil their drinking water due to water lines bursting in the frigid temperatures While in Tampa, Florida, the thermometer plunged below freezing for the first time in almost five years, according to the National Weather Service — a drop conducive to cold-blooded iguanas falling out of trees.

William Kless lived in Buffalo. He called his three children at their mother’s house to wish them Merry Christmas and then headed off on his snowmobile for a second day spent shuttling people from stuck cars and frigid homes to a church operating as a warming shelter.

Through heavy, wind-driven snow, he brought about 15 people to the church in Buffalo on Saturday, he said, including a family of five transported one-by-one. He also got a man in need of dialysis, who had spent 17 hours stranded in his car, back home, where he could receive treatment.