Worst Christmas Eve weather in U. S. history
2022.12.24 12:28
Worst Christmas Eve weather in U. S. history
Budrigannews.com – On Saturday, an arctic blast swept through a large portion of the United States, causing power outages, flight cancellations, and car accidents. It was predicted that several cities from Pennsylvania to Georgia would experience the coldest Christmas Eve on record.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), Pittsburgh’s highest temperature on Christmas Eve will be just 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius). This will surpass the city’s previous record-breaking low of 13 degrees Fahrenheit, which was set in 1983.
Athens and Charleston, both in South Carolina, were also anticipated to experience their daytime Christmas Eve high temperatures at their lowest levels, while Washington, D.C. was anticipated to experience its chilliest December 24 since 1989.
As a dangerous deep freeze in the eastern two-thirds of the United States continued into the holiday weekend, the flurry of yuletide temperature records were anticipated.
Around the country, the freeze has already caused car accidents that resulted in fatalities, with CNN reporting at least 14 deaths from weather-related collisions.
The icy virus joined with a “typhoon bomb” of weighty snow and crying breezes thundering out of the Incomparable Lakes district on Friday and into the Upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys unleashed destruction on power frameworks, streets and business air traffic.
On Friday, severe winter weather was cited as the cause of at least five deaths.
In a 50-vehicle pileup that shut down the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near Toledo, two drivers died and numerous others were injured. Officials said that stranded drivers had to be evacuated by bus to avoid freezing in their cars.
Kentucky, a neighbor, confirmed three weather-related deaths: two from car accidents and one from exposure, a homeless person.
Friday’s travel conditions in the Pacific Northwest were also hazardous due to freezing rain and ice from a separate storm.
The weather service reported that some 240 million people nationwide were affected by winter weather warnings and advisories on Friday, spanning the border between Canada and Mexico and coast to coast.
“Depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” according to the NWS’s map of current and upcoming meteorological hazards.
As of early Saturday morning, as many as 1.8 million homes and businesses in the United States were without power due to strain on energy systems caused by rising heat demand and transmission line damage caused by storms, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.
During one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, the disruptions disrupted the daily routines and holiday plans of millions of Americans.
Between Friday and Jan. 2, the American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7 million people planned to travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home. However, the stormy weather leading up to the weekend probably kept many of them inside.
According to flight-tracking service FlightAware, at least 3,741 US flights were canceled on Saturday, resulting in 10,297 delays. According to the flight tracking system, more than 5,000 flights were canceled on Friday.
All three border crossing bridges in the Buffalo area were closed to traffic from Canada due to the weather, and the driving ban was imposed by the city of Buffalo and the county that surrounds it on the shore of Lake Erie in western New York.
Authorities all over the country opened warming centers in libraries and police stations as a result of the severe weather, rushing to expand temporary shelter for the homeless. The difficulty was made even more difficult by the tens of thousands of migrants who have recently crossed the southern border of the United States.
In El Paso, Texas, wind chill factors dropped to single digits Fahrenheit (minus 18 to minus 13 Celsius) due to the bitter cold brought on by strong winds that extended through the Deep South to the border between the United States and Mexico. Frostbite can occur within minutes of exposure to these conditions.
