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Winter weather is continuing to disrupt holiday travel across the United States, leaving travellers facing delays and cancellations during one of the busiest times of the year.
More than 4600 flights have already been cancelled after nearly 2700 cancellations yesterday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
Thursday's cancellations represented about 11 per cent of US-based carriers' scheduled flights, according to FlightAware, with nearly half of flights delayed on Thursday.
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Cancellations are highest Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, New York's LaGuardia and in Chicago, according to FlightAware data.
In addition to the cancellations, there had been about 6400 delays among the flights still going out.
For Saturday, almost 400 flights have already been cancelled.
Slammed by wind-whipped snow. Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York had to shut down flights entirely.
"The Buffalo Airport Airfield has closed due to hazardous weather conditions," and all flights scheduled for the evening have been cancelled, according to a tweet from the airport's official Twitter account.
Ground stops
The Federal Aviation Administration posted ground stops Friday morning for flights bound for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, American Airlines' second-largest hub, and Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, because of deicing.
In the Pacific Northwest, FAA notices showed flights bound to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Portland International Airport were also under ground stops Friday morning because of snow and ice.
The FAA says the major air pressure changes associated with this storm will trigger high winds at airports from Boston down to Atlanta.
Airports in Chicago and Denver saw the bulk of cancellations and delays on Thursday. Chicago O'Hare International Airport was logging average delays Thursday of almost three hours due to snow and ice.
Storm has bad timing
An arctic blast and a rapidly intensifying winter storm have come at an unfortunate time for travellers trying to join family and friends for the holidays.
Airlines have issued winter weather waivers allowing passengers to rebook at no cost within a limited time period.
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The growing cancellations make it harder for passengers racing against the clock and weather to rebook and arrive in time for Christmas. Flights this year were already more crowded than they've been previously – even before the storm disrupted travel schedules.
"We hear about how travel volume is still down, 5 or 10 per cent, but what many folks might not have realized is that the number of flights in the sky is actually down more like 15 or 20 per cent," Scott Keyes of Scott's Cheap Flights told CNN.
"The planes that are actually flying are more full today than they were pre-pandemic. That's why there's not as many empty seats to switch onto if you do find your flight gets canceled or delayed," Keyes said.
The storm is expected to intensify as it barrels through the Midwest and East and is making for grim road conditions with poor visibility and ice-covered streets.
A handful of deaths have already been reported. In north-central Kansas, three people were killed in separate car crashes on Wednesday evening; one death was confirmed to be weather-related, and two were believed to be weather-related but need more investigation, according to Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Candice Breshears.
And in Kentucky, three people died due to the storm, including two in vehicle crashes and the other a "housing insecure" person in Louisville, Governor Andy Beshear said.
The life-threatening cold has pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast and the Mexican border, with below-zero wind chills reported as far south as Austin and Atlanta.
The forecast calls for near-record low temperatures for Christmas Eve on Saturday in cities including Washington DC and Atlanta and parts of Florida.
Major power outages across the US
Damaging winds behind the front have knocked out power to about 1.5 million customers, with outages stretching from Texas across to New England, according to the website PowerOutage.US.
Most significantly, North Carolina had over 180,000 customers without power, while Virginia, Tennessee, Maine and New York each had over 100,000 customers without power, the site said.
In all, more than 200 million people in the US were under wind chill alerts from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and from Washington state to Florida, with below-zero wind chills expected in the Southeast by Friday.
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Other winter weather alerts are in effect for blizzard conditions, ice, snow as well as flooding.
"The National Weather Service's Watch Warning graphic depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the agency said Thursday.
Notably, parts of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming have already seen wind chills below minus 10 degrees in the past two days.
"The ongoing major winter storm will continue to produce areas of heavy snow, strong winds, and life-threatening wind chills through Saturday. If traveling for the holiday, please use extreme caution and pay attention to the latest forecasts and updates," the National Weather Service said Thursday.
Source: 9News
