At least 34 died in the blizzard. The storm affected 60% of the country and left thousands without electricity.
A severe winter storm that hit about 60 percent of the United States, plus Canada, has killed at least 34 people as of Sunday (12/25), amid heavy snow, freezing rain and dangerously low temperatures.
The storm’s reach — nearly unprecedented and forcing residents to seek thermal shelters to survive — stretched from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border.
Cars buried in snow in Kent County, Michigan
(Photo: Neil Blake The Grand Rapids Press/AP/dpa/picture alliance)
Officials say the storm could cause even more lives after it moved further east on Sunday. On Monday, the US National Weather Service said the weather phenomenon is unlikely to dissipate so quickly.
“Much of the eastern US will remain frozen through Monday before a moderation trend begins on Tuesday,” the agency said in a statement.
Chaos in Buffalo
The winter storm hit Buffalo, New York hard on Christmas Sunday, causing power outages and trapping residents in their cars. The blizzard ravaged the city, bringing the total snowpack to nearly eight feet.
Erie County Chief Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Twitter that at least 10 people have died in the county, of which Buffalo is a part. According to him, some of the dead were found in cars, while other bodies were found in the snow. Poloncarz fears that the number of victims will continue to rise.
County-wide driving bans were implemented to contain the situation, with most of the area being impassable.
New York state was one of the hardest hit by the historic 2022 Christmas blizzard in the U.S.
(Photo: Lindsey DeDario/REUTERS)
“HIS [como] entering a war zone, the vehicles on the roads are scary,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native.
In an interview with reporters, he warned that residents of the region continue to suffer a “Very dangerous situation with risk of death“and asked everyone to stay at home.
“This will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo. […] And we’re still in the middle of it,” the New York governor said.
thousands without power
Power outages continued into Sunday despite significant power restorations. Energy-monitoring website PowerOutage.US reported that as of Sunday evening, just under 100,000 customers were still without electricity in the United States.
This is significantly less than the peak of 1.7 million customers left without electricity due to the current winter storm.
As of Sunday evening, more than 26,000 New York state residents were left without power. In the state of Maine, in the northeast of the country, there were 45,800 customers. Further south in Virginia, more than 9,700 residents have been affected by outages.
The storm also forced flight cancellations in the United States, with more than 1,500 flights canceled over the Christmas weekend.
bomb cyclone
The National Weather Service described the winter storm, which began Thursday, as a “once in a generation” event.
Some parts of the country have recorded temperatures as low as -48 degrees Celsius.
Even in the state of Floridain the south, the thermometer dropped to below zero for the first time in nearly five years at Tampa International Airport and reached 6.1 degrees Celsius in West Palm Beach.
Meteorologists said the the extreme cold was fueled by a “bomb cyclone”.🇧🇷🇧🇷), which occurs when atmospheric pressure drops too rapidly during a severe storm.
The cyclone developed near the Great Lakes, resulting in blizzard conditions, including high winds and snow.
Note from Climatempo
Cyclones are areas of low atmospheric pressure. Technically a cyclone is called a “bomb” or “explosive” when atmospheric pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, or 1 millibar per hour. This drop in air pressure is very abrupt and rapid, causing gusts of wind and intense storm cloud development, with the possibility of heavy precipitation of rain or snow, or rain and snow at the same time.
This content is a work originally published by the German DW agency. The opinion expressed by the publication does not reflect or represent the opinion of this portal or its collaborators.🇧🇷
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Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
