Massive winter storm brings frigid temps, icy weather and thousands of flight cancellations

Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday plans Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

So far at least 12 deaths related to the storm have been confirmed across the country.

More than 200 million people were under a winter weather advisory or warning on Friday, the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.

More than 4,800 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled by Friday afternoon, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays. 

In Buffalo, New York, the National Weather Service reported “zero mile” visibility and posted a video showing the whiteout conditions. The regional transportation authority said all flights at the Buffalo airport were canceled through Friday evening.

Forecasters say a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard-like conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

In famously snowy Buffalo, forecasters predicted a “once-in-a-generation storm” because of heavy lake-effect snow, wind gusts as high as 65 mph, whiteouts and the potential for extensive power outages. Mayor Byron Brown urged people to stay home, and the NHL postponed the Buffalo Sabres’ home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The area could see 2 to 4 feet of snow through the weekend, National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Otto said. It comes just over a month after the area was pummeled by a storm that dumped a record 6 feet of snow in some areas.

Denver, also no stranger to winter storms, was the coldest it has been in 32 years on Thursday, when the temperature dropped to minus 24 in the morning at the airport.

The huge storm stretched from border to border and beyond. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. And in Mexico, migrants waited near the U.S. border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” President Joe Biden warned Thursday in the Oval Office after a briefing from federal officials. “This is serious stuff.”

Power outages have left about 1.5 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage.us, which tracks utility reports. Utilities in Nashville, Memphis and throughout the Tennessee Valley said they were implementing rolling blackouts Friday to conserve power as the region battles an extreme cold front.

Among those with canceled flights was Ashley Sherrod, who planned to fly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Flint, Michigan, on Thursday afternoon. Sherrod was debating whether to drive or risk booking a Saturday flight that she worries will be canceled.

“My family is calling, they want me home for Christmas, but they want me to be safe, too,” said Sherrod, whose bag — including the Grinch pajamas she was planning to wear to a family party — was packed and ready by the door. “Christmas is starting to, for lack of a better word, suck.”

The cold also led to a high demand at homeless shelters, including in Detroit, where some shelters were at capacity Thursday as the temperature plummeted to single digits with negative windchills.

“We are not sending anyone back into this cold,” Aisha Morrell-Ferguson, a spokeswoman for COTS, a family-only shelter, told The Detroit News.

In Portland, Oregon, officials opened four emergency shelters. In the city’s downtown, Steven Venus tried to get on a light-rail train to get out of the cold after huddling on the sidewalk overnight in below-zero temperatures.

“My toes were freezing off,” he said, a sleeping bag wrapped around his head, as he paused near a flimsy tent where another homeless person was taking shelter.

Courtney Dodds, a spokeswoman for the Union Gospel Mission, said teams from her organization had been going out to try to persuade people to seek shelter.

“It can be really easy for people to doze off and fall asleep and wind up losing their lives because of the cold weather,” she said.

The frigid air was moving through the central United States to the east, with windchill advisories affecting about 135 million people over the coming days, National Weather Service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said Thursday. Places like Des Moines, Iowa, will feel like minus 37 degrees, making it possible to suffer frostbite in less than five minutes.

As the storm sweeps the nation, a shortage of snowplow operators is impacting states from Oregon to Ohio, with transportation officials blaming low wages and a tight labor market. The shortfall could make roads less safe.