Than 200 million americans are under a weather advisory as a massive winter storm tightens its icy grip on the country ahead of the holiday weekend. on friday, more than 1.5 million people lost power and thousands of flights were cancelled. at least 12 deaths related to the storm have been confirmed across the country.
Storm, which is known as a bomb cyclone, began on friday and brought blizzard-like conditions to the great lakes area. in canada, the provinces of ontario and quebec are bearing the brunt of the storm, causing power cuts for hundreds of thousands of households. in the us, the storm spans 2,000 miles (3,200km) from texas to maine, with temperatures in elk park, montana, dropping to -50f (-45c). heavy snowfall was forecast in areas of pennsylvania and michigan, with buffalo, new york, expecting at least 35in (89cm) of snow. even the usually milder southern states of louisiana, alabama, florida and georgia were subject to hard-freeze warnings.
Storm caused a number of fatalities, many of which were related to road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in ohio that left at least one person dead. more than 8,000 flights were cancelled on friday, reported tracking site flightaware, wreaking yet more travel chaos as travellers battle to make it home for christmas. the latest figure for customers without electricity across the us by friday evening was 1.2 million, according to poweroutage.us. utilities throughout the tennessee valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power, and south dakota governor kristi noem activated the state’s national guard to haul firewood from a nearby national forest to the rosebud sioux tribe and the oglala sioux tribe.
Storm was caused by a bomb cyclone, which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets. this causes blizzard-like conditions in the great lakes area and heavy snowfall in other parts of the us, as well as icy temperatures in both the northern and southern states. the storm has caused widespread disruption, with thousands of flights cancelled, millions of people without power, and at least 12 storm-related fatalities. south dakota governor kristi noem has taken action to help those affected by the storm, by activating the state’s national guard to provide firewood to the rosebud sioux tribe and the oglala sioux tribe.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083129?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
