US carriers have warned of “significant impact” to pre-Christmas flights amid a severe Arctic winter storm affecting much of the country.
Thousands of flights have been cancelled from major airports across the US ahead of the festive travel peak.
The US Federal Aviation Administration delayed flights at Washington’s Reagan National airport, at Philadelphia International airport, and at both Newark and JFK airports in the New York. About 2,360 flights had been cancelled across the country by Thursday evening.
Carriers including American Airlines, United and JetBlue waived fees for changing flights from many hubs.
American Airlines said: “When severe weather or other uncontrollable events impact your flight and travel dates, you may be able to change your trip with no change fee.”
Forecasters warned of a potential ‘bomb cyclone’ with temperatures plummeting to as much as -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Weekend weather alerts have been imposed affecting more than 200 million people, or 60% of the population.
The governor of New York state, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm.
The US National Weather Service issued a warning about heavy snow, strong winds and “life-threatening cold” over the central and eastern US.
The “historic winter storm” will produce widespread disruption to large portions of the nation heading into the holiday weekend.
A powerful Arctic front is forecast to sweep into the eastern third of the country today (Friday) with heavy snow blanketing the Great Lakes region into norther New York State and northern New England while “significant” freezing rain is expected across the Pacific northwest.
The alert described a “tremendously impactful” winter storm continuing to affect large parts of the country going into the holiday weekend.
It warned: “Winter weather hazards will stretch from border to border across the central and eastern US and from coast to coast from the east coast to the Pacific Northwest.”
The powerful winter storm and sharp cold front will continue to produce snow from the Midwest and Ohio Valley through the Great Lakes and interior Northeast into the weekend.
“The combination of very cold temperatures and gusty to high winds over much of the central and eastern US will continue dangerous wind chill temperatures behind the sharp cold front,” the US Weather Service added.
“As of Thursday afternoon, over 200 million people in the US are under some form of winter weather warning or advisory. This includes nearly 177 million for wind chill warnings or advisories, 11 million for blizzard warning, 65 million for winter storm warnings, and 500,000 for ice storm warnings.
“This storm will likely will have increasingly widespread impacts to travel going into the busy holiday travel time late this week, along with the potential for power outages from the expected high winds, heavy snows, significant icing and overall increased power consumption in places.”