CHICAGO: More than 1,800 flights were canceled across the United States by Thursday morning as a massive winter storm upended holiday travel plans with a triple threat of heavy snow, howling winds and bitter cold.

At least five US states — Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia and North Carolina — have already implemented emergency plans and others were likely to follow, with the worst of the Arctic blast yet to come.

“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” President Joe Biden told reporters at a White House briefing on the weather and transport turmoil. “This is serious stuff,” he added, urging people to heed warnings from local authorities. Blinding whiteouts and hazardous road conditions were already being seen in parts of the country slammed by a dangerous cold front.

Beyond the 1,825 cancelations as of 1750 GMT, more than 3,700 other flights within, into or out of the United States have been delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The majority of US flights called off have so far been at Chicago O’Hare or Denver, both international hubs, the data showed.

AccuWeather forecasters have said the storm could rapidly strengthen into what is known as a “bomb cyclone” through a process known as “bombogenesis,” when the barometric pressure drops and a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass.

National Weather Service (NWS) forecaster Michael Charnick tweeted a video showing drivers struggling along a highway between Colorado and Wyoming, where the temperature with wind chills plummeted to -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40C).

The NWS released key safety messages on its Twitter account, warning snow squalls — bursts of moderate to heavy snow lasting an hour or two — had already happened or were expected from the Central Plains to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

“People exposed to extreme cold are susceptible to frostbite in a matter of minutes,” the agency cautioned.

“Areas most prone to frostbite are uncovered skin and the extremities, such as hands and feet. Hypothermia is another threat during extreme cold.”

In the Midwest, blizzard conditions stranded 100 motorists in Rapid City and Wall in South Dakota, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office tweeted.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2022