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A once-in-a-decade monster winter storm is battering a large swath of the central United States with snow and frigid temperatures, wreaking havoc on roads and cancelling thousands of flights as the holiday season reaches its peak.
The strengthening storm will bring more than 12 inches of snow and possible blizzard conditions to the Midwest as the weather service warns of wind chills that threaten the lives of millions of people.
Blinding snowstorms and dangerous cold have gripped the region as an estimated 112.7 million people will travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometres) through January 2, according to AAA.
More than 3,600 flights as of Saturday have already been cancelled in the US, with the majority of Thursday's cancellations in Chicago and Denver, according to airline tracking service FlightAware. As the storm moves east, travel disruptions will affect New York's LaGuardia Airport, where 191 Friday flights have already been cancelled.
With freezing temperatures gripping much of the United States, the National Weather Service has warned about the warning signs of hypothermia, a significant and possibly dangerous drop in body temperature. Frequently, a person who is exposed to the cold for a long time shows the following signs: tiredness, confusion, and clumsiness with his hands. In addition, shivering, memory loss and drowsy.
As the storm moves over the Great Lakes, a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone is expected to develop due to "the abrupt deepening of this low-pressure system," the National Weather Service said.
What is bomb cyclone?
In describing how the storm formed, meteorologists used terms like "explosive cyclogenesis" and "bombogenesis" to compare the abrupt drop in pressure to a bomb explosion. Despite how it may seem, the word "bomb cyclone" is an actual scientific term.
In simple terms, a bomb cyclone is a rapidly strengthening storm (area of low pressure). The vast majority of such storms occur over the ocean. The storm may be tropical or non-tropical in nature.
These types of storms are most common on the east coast of the US and Canada, where the cold ground and warm current of the Gulf Stream provide optimal conditions for a bomb cyclone to develop.
Important points
- Power outages and coastal flooding are likely with this system; Thunder is possible with some of the heaviest showers Thursday night, but widespread severe weather is not expected.
- Temperatures turn dangerously cold on Friday night, making roads icy on Christmas Eve morning; Temperatures are not expected to hit the 30s. The dangerous cold could lead to overnight flash frosts; the highs this weekend will remain in the 20s, which aggravates the risk of ice.
- American Airlines has also issued a travel advisory, while JetBlue says it will charge change and cancellation fees for those travelling to or from Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul, given the significant snowfall in the Midwest.
People question global warming
People began to question the theory of Global Warming, A user wrote "This graph seems to show a dip in temps between 1880-1920 (w/ isothermal periods). Am I misinterpreting? A 1951-1980 baseline isn’t a full climatological period but perhaps that’s trivial. What about sensing locations, equipment, maintenance, QA/QC, etc. for the global dataset.
Another user wrote "I thought we were emerging from an ice age either brought on my a meteor strike or a volcano eruption. I thought there was evidence of warmer climates buried deep inside ice cores dating back thousands of years. I'm just trying to understand."
Another user said "Yet again, completely discounting solar forcing."
The American Automobile Association estimated that more than 112 million people will travel 50 miles or more from their homes between Friday and January 2, the vast majority of them, 102 million, by car.
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