Wild winter storm brings Christmas travel mayhem in US

Vehicles sit along U.S. 131 north by 84th Street on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022 in Byron Center, Mich. A blizzard warning is in effect for Kent County and the surrounding region. Winter weather is blanketing the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions. (Neil Blake/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

A wild winter storm has continued to envelop much of the US, bringing blinding blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and life-threatening cold that created mayhem for people travelling for the Christmas holiday.

The storm that arrived earlier in the week downed power lines, littered roads with piles of cars in fatal accidents and led to mass flight cancellations.

The storm was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.

About 60% of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted well below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

Freezing rain coated much of the Pacific Northwest in a layer of ice, while people in the north east faced the threat of coastal and inland flooding.

The frigid temperatures and gusty winds were expected to produce “dangerously cold wind chills across much of the central and eastern US this holiday weekend”, the weather service said, adding that conditions “will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travellers that become stranded”.

The US 131 road in Michigan (Neil Blake/Grand Rapids Press/AP)

“In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes,” it said.

Late on Friday power outages were still affecting more than a million homes and businesses, according to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports.

As millions of Americans were travelling ahead of Christmas, more than 5,700 flights were cancelled on Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

Multiple roads were closed and crashes killed at least six people, officials said.

Portland Pier in Maine (Robert F Bukaty/AP)

At least two people died in a massive pile-up involving 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike. A Kansas City driver was killed on Thursday after skidding into a creek, and three others died on Wednesday in separate crashes on icy northern Kansas roads.

In Canada, WestJet cancelled all flights on Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, as meteorologists warned of a potential once-in-a-decade weather event.

In Mexico, migrants camped near the US border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a Supreme Court decision on pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

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

Satellite image of weather systems across North America on Friday (NOAA/AP)

Even people in Florida were braced for unusually chilly weather as rare freeze warnings were issued for large parts of the state over the holiday weekend.

Calling it a “kitchen sink storm”, New York governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency. In parts of New York City, tidal flooding inundated roads, homes and businesses on Friday.

In Boston, rain combined with a high tide flooded some central streets on Friday.