US storm causes widespread power outages, thousands of flights cancelled

From Texas to New England, the monster tempest brings hazardous conditions, prompting warnings to enactment disconnected roads.

Nearly a cardinal customers crossed the United States are without energy and much than 10,000 flights person been cancelled arsenic a monster wintertime tempest threatens to paralyse a ample portion of the state with dense snowfall and freezing rain.

The tempest is forecast to expanse the eastbound two-thirds ⁠of the federation connected Sunday and into the week, plummeting temperatures to beneath freezing and causing “dangerous question and infrastructure impacts” to linger for respective days, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

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As ​of 10:47 americium EST (15:47 GMT) connected Sunday, much than 850,000 customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with ‍at slightest 290,000 successful Tennessee and implicit 100,000 each successful Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.

Heavy snowfall was forecast from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, portion “catastrophic crystal accumulation” threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Icicles signifier connected powerfulness lines during a wintertime tempest successful Nashville, Tennessee [Kristin Hall/AP]

“It is simply a unsocial tempest successful the consciousness that it is truthful widespread,” said NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli, adding that astir 213 cardinal radical were nether immoderate benignant of wintertime upwind warning.

“It was affecting areas each the mode from New Mexico, Texas, each the mode into New England, truthful we are talking similar a 2,000-mile [3,220km] spread.”

Calling the tempest “historic”, US President Donald Trump connected Saturday approved national exigency catastrophe declarations arsenic astir 20 states and the District of Columbia declared upwind emergencies.

“We volition proceed to monitor, and enactment successful interaction with each States successful the way of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump wrote successful a station connected Truth Social.

More than 10,000 flights were cancelled connected Sunday and different 8,000 person been delayed, according to the formation tracker FlightAware.com. Major US airlines warned passengers ⁠to enactment alert for abrupt formation changes and cancellations.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, unit and search-and-rescue teams successful galore states, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, informing Americans to instrumentality precautions.

“It’s going to ‍be very, precise ⁠cold. So we would promote everybody to banal up connected fuel, banal up connected food, and we volition get done this together,” Noem said. “We person inferior crews that are moving to reconstruct that arsenic speedy arsenic possible.”

The Department of Energy connected Sunday issued ‌an exigency bid to authorise grid relation PJM Interconnection to tally “specified resources” successful the mid-Atlantic region, careless of limits owed to authorities laws oregon biology permits.

The NWS warned that dense crystal could origin “long-duration powerfulness outages, extended histrion damage, and highly unsafe oregon impassable question conditions”, including successful galore states little accustomed to aggravated wintertime weather.

Authorities warned of life-threatening acold that could past a week post-storm, particularly successful the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, wherever upwind chill lows were forecast to dip to extremes nether -50F (-45C). Such temperatures tin origin frostbite wrong minutes.

The monolithic tempest strategy is the effect of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic portion of cold, low-pressure aerial that usually forms a comparatively compact, circular strategy but sometimes morphs into a much oval shape, sending acold aerial spilling crossed a ample region, successful this case, North America.

Scientists accidental the expanding frequence of specified disruptions of the polar vortex whitethorn beryllium linked to clime change.