A massive winter weather impacted many areas of the United States (US) with large amounts of freezing rain, dumped sleet and snow that resulted in road and air travel being shut down.
Additionally, several tree branches and power lines were taken down due to the amount of ice on them, leaving over several hundred thousand customers in the Southeast without power. As stated by the National Weather Service, ice and snow accumulations were likely to continue throughout the day on Monday, along with potential for dangerous travel and infrastructure challenges, for several days due to extremely low temperatures.
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Flights cancelled
There were over 11,000 aircraft that were scheduled to operate on either an internal, outbound or inbound status in or into or from the United States. However, in view of the massive winter storm, all airplanes at both Ronald Reagan Washington National airport (DCA) in Washington, DC, and the majority of commercial airline operations at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) were cancelled.
As per ABC News, Sunday was considered one of the biggest weather-related flight cancellation days in the US history. For Monday, at least 2,500 flights were cancelled.
Snow continued to fall heavily throughout the Ohio Valley into the Northeast and several locations faced "catastrophic ice accumulations" from the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States.
"It is a unique storm in the sense that it is so widespread," weather service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said in a phone interview, as quoted by Economic Times. "It was affecting areas all the way from New Mexico, Texas, all the way into New England, so we're talking like a 2,000-mile spread," Santorelli informed.
Warnings issued
According to ABC News, "Snow totals so far have topped 8 inches in Arkansas, 11 inches in Illinois and Ohio, 13 inches in Indiana, 8 in Kansas, 12 in Missouri, 7 in Oklahoma, 6 in Texas and 5 in Tennessee."
In the Northeast, snow totals so far have reached 12 inches in New Jersey, 11 inches in New York and 15 inches in Pennsylvania, the news agency informed.
Warnings for winter storms were issued in various cities, including Dallas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; St. Louis, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; Cleveland, Ohio; Washington DC; Philadelphia and Boston.
Moreover, more than 9,59,000 electricity customers remained without power as of 7:05 p.m. EST (0005 GMT), according to PowerOutage.us. Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas have been hit the hardest.
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National emergency declared by Trump
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in a dozen states as of Saturday and called the storm "historic". The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) search and rescue teams and resources were dispatched to many different parts around the country and to support states affected by this storm, stated Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
In New York, communities along the Canada-US border reported record-setting temperature readings during these frigid temperatures. Watertown reached a chilling minus 34 degree Fahrenheit (-37 degree Celsius) and Copenhagen registered a low of minus 49 degree Fahrenheit (-45 degree Celsius) according to a statement from Governor Kathy Hochul.
The southern states faced the greatest threats due to the severe winter storm that caused tree limbs and branches to fall on roadways and power lines. The heavy equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar, advised their employees to not report to work on Monday and Tuesday at the remanufacturing facility in Corinth, Mississippi.
