The National Weather Service (NWS) has started labeling the incoming strong weather front a “once in a generation type event,” a massive winter storm cell sweeping over the continental United States has already sparked a response from airlines to cancel well over 1,000 flights and threatens multiple thousands more as the Christmas weekend quickly approaches.
In 37 states so far, a stretch of land that reaches all the way down to the southern border of the United States, well over 90 million people have been issued extreme winter weather warnings while 87 million people have been issued alerts about extreme wind chill. As reported by FlightAware, multiple thousands of flights will be canceled throughout airports.
This giant storm is expected to morph into a “bomb cyclone” as things evolve Thursday evening into Friday morning. The term “bomb cyclone” comes from the meteorological term “bombogenesis” or “explosive cyclogenesis,” which takes place when the central pressure of a storm system freefalls at least 24 millibars over the course of a 24-hour period.
“Powerful winter storm to produce widespread disruptive and potentially crippling impacts across the central and eastern United States,” explained NWS in their warning. “Record-breaking cold and life-threatening wind chills over the Great Plains to overspread the eastern half of the Nation by Friday.”
“Temperatures across the central High Plains have already plummeted 50 degrees F in just a few hours,” stated the NWS, explaining that the gusts of win from the storm would create “wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees across a large swath of the Intermountain West and northern/central Plains, with more localized areas of minus 50 to minus 70 possible through the end of the week. … widespread Wind Chill Warnings, Watches, and Advisories span across over 30 states from Washington to Florida.”
Sections of North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan have all been slapped with severe blizzard warnings.
In more southern locales, such as Atlanta and Nashville, the expected win chill could drop all the way down to negative 11 degrees by Saturday. Birmingham, Alabama, is expected to drop to minus five degrees.
United, American, Delta, Southwest, and Jet Blue have all started the process of issuing travel waivers, explained a report from CNN.
Georgia GOP Governor Brian Kemp officially put out a state of emergency announcement late Wednesday. “Due to the possibility of black ice accumulating on roadways and low temperatures, this projected winter weather poses a danger to the people of Georgia, and due to the low temperatures, the efficient transportation and supply of heating fuel is essential to maintain public safety,” he explained.
