WASHINGTON: On Wednesday, a "once-in-a-generation" winter storm was threatening to disrupt millions of Americans' holiday travel plans.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the storm would bring "a multitude of weather hazards" to the northern, central, and eastern regions of the nation, including blizzards and wind chills that could be fatal.
Carriers advised occasion voyagers to prepare for deferrals and abrogations as an Icy virus front holds the northern Fields on Wednesday, moves throughout the Midwest and heads towards the East Coast on Friday not long before Christmas.
The National Weather Service predicted that "record-breaking frigid temperatures" would arrive on the Gulf Coast and eastern United States by Friday. "This will not be your average cold front as temperatures could drop 20 or more degrees within a few hours," the NWS stated.
It stated that more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of snow was anticipated for the Great Lakes region.
According to the NWS, "cold of this magnitude could lead to frostbite on exposed skin within minutes." "Wind chill values could drop as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 57 degrees Celsius) throughout parts of the central High Plains," the agency stated.
It stated, "Prepare now for extreme cold and ensure outdoor livestock and animals have sufficient shelter."
From the northern and central Plains to the Great Lakes, "extremely dangerous travel conditions for both drivers and air travel" will be caused by snow and wind gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour, according to the NWS.
The tempest comes as the Transportation Security Organization said it expects occasion go volume to be near pre-pandemic levels, with the most active day on Thursday.
Between Friday and January 2, more than 112 million people, or 102 million, are expected to travel more than 50 miles from their homes, according to the American Automobile Association.
At major air travel hubs Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning that heavy snowfall and high winds could delay flights. Denver, Chicago, and Paul
For instance, it was anticipated that the temperature would drop from around 50 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday to minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday in Denver.
The Denver Coliseum has been opened by authorities in the capital of Colorado as an emergency warming center.
According to AccuWeather forecasters, the storm could rapidly intensify into a "bomb cyclone" through a process called "bombogenesis," in which a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass as the barometric pressure drops.
With wind gusts of more than 65 mph, wind chills as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero, and scattered or possibly widespread power outages, the NWS in Buffalo, New York, described it as a "once-in-a-generation storm."
It was deemed a "high-end, life-threatening event" that "needs to be taken seriously" by forecasters in Minneapolis.
The National Weather Service (NWS) informed people in Fort Worth, Texas, that the cold snap was not expected to be as devastating as the one in February of last year, when freezing temperatures cut off power to millions of people in the Lone Star State and killed dozens.
In addition, lawmakers in Washington were rushing to finish work on a comprehensive $1.7 trillion spending package before the enormous winter storm made travel plans more difficult.