2022-12-26 08:00:00
Media reports that at least 39 people have died in the past few days. At least 13 deaths were reported in New York State alone on Sunday. There, Governor Kathy Hochul spoke of a “devastating” storm.
The cold zone stretched from the Great Lakes down to the Rio Grande on the Mexican border, affecting millions of people. Even in notoriously sunny Florida, there were frosts. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from the east to the west coast were temporarily without power. In some parts of the country, however, temperatures are slowly rising again. The winter storm had moved west to east across the United States during the Christmas period.
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Arrived on the east coast: On Christmas Eve, the winter storm moves through Amherst in the state of New York.
Extraordinary Weather Event
The scale of the storm, with blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and life-threatening temperature drops, was almost unprecedented. Weather warnings applied to about 60 percent of the US population. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, temperatures fell well below normal levels. Under these circumstances, one could get frostbite outdoors within minutes, warned the weather service.
Fewer power outages now
More than 2,360 domestic and international flights were canceled on Saturday, according to the FlightAware website. On Sunday afternoon (local time) there were already more than 1,707.
The electricity and thus also the heat supply was partially restored by Sunday. According to website poweroutage.us, fewer than 200,000 homes were without power as of late Sunday afternoon EST – up from 1.7 million at the peak of the outages. However, the utility companies said that temporary shutdowns can continue to be expected in the coming days.
“Bomb Cyclone” Warning
Winter storm in the USA | Image Credit: ap/Kareem Elgazzar
According to meteorologists, a “bomb cyclone” had formed near the Great Lakes on the border with Canada. It occurs when the air pressure in a low-pressure area drops unusually quickly. The result is severe snowstorms – blizzards – and temperature drops of several dozen degrees within a few hours.
The city of Buffalo was particularly affected. There the wind reached hurricane strength, visibility in the middle of the snow desert dropped to practically zero. Emergency services were also paralyzed; several people died in medical emergencies because they could not be reached and treated in time, an Erie County spokesman said. New York Gov. Hochul said nearly all fire trucks in Buffalo were stuck. The airport there was closed until Tuesday.
New York City, with its approximately eight million inhabitants, also experienced a rare drop in temperature on Friday: within just a few hours, the thermometer fell from plus 11 to minus 12 degrees.
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