Freezing conditions to linger as Winter Storm Blair blankets US
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
- Parts of the US are being battered by Winter Storm Blair, with states of emergency declared.
- The frigid conditions are impacting travel, with icy Midwest roads and flights and trains canceled.
- Snow hit Washington, DC, on Monday as the area prepares for the Trump administration transition.
Ice-storm warnings and unpleasantly cold conditions are expected to continue in much of the northern US.
The Arctic outbreak, dubbed Winter Storm Blair by the Weather Channel, has disrupted travel and resulted in at least five deaths.
The storm is bringing heavy snow to areas in the mid-Atlantic region that haven't seen such weather in a decade, the National Weather Service warned.
Heavy snowfall has occurred in places such as Kansas City, Missouri, where local media reported 10 inches of snow on Sunday night, and Louisville, Kentucky, which saw its largest single-day snowfall in about 25 years.
On Tuesday, snow is expected to dwindle in most of the areas blanketed by it as the storm moves south.
Two people have died in a weather-related crash in Wichita, Kansas, a Missouri public works employee was fatally injured during snow removal operations, and a person in Houston, Texas, died due to cold weather, NBC reported on Monday afternoon.
As of 3 a.m. ET Tuesday, about 207,063 utility customers were without power across Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Illinois, and Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power outages across the US. That was down from about 254,000 customers on Monday afternoon.
Travel delays and cancellations
More than 2,900 flights were canceled and over 9,300 flights within, into, or out of the US were delayed on Monday, according to FlightAware.
More than half of Monday flights were canceled at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, while the nearby Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport saw 125 flights, or 43% of those scheduled Monday, canceled.
Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airports are leading the country in delays.
Amtrak, the US national rail operator, also announced a series of cancellations in the Northeast and the Midwest on Monday.
The numbers of impacted flights are expected to continue to rise.
Airlines including American, Delta, Southwest, and United have said they're waiving change fees for flights impacted by the storm.
Meanwhile, freezing temperatures led to icy roads and dangerous driving conditions in the Midwest on Sunday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported 436 crashes and 1,788 stranded motorists by 3 p.m. on Monday.
Heavy snow and cold to continue
The NWS Weather Prediction Center said Monday that the adverse weather would move toward the mid-Atlantic throughout the day, bringing up to 12 inches of snow and dangerously cold temperatures.
Snow — possibly mixed with sleet and freezing rain — reached about 8 inches in Washington, DC, where preparations are underway for Donald Trump's incoming administration.
Additional cold weather warnings have also been issued in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, with officials warning to limit travel in the impacted areas, The Weather Channel reported.
The Baltimore-Washington National Weather Service said on Monday afternoon that heavy snow would continue through 11 p.m., dropping up to 3 more inches before the snow system exits the area.
Earlier, it predicted an inch or more of snow to fall every hour on Monday morning in the DC area.
In an X post on Monday, the mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, said the cold-weather emergency remained activated.
"Temperatures are dangerously low," she said.
Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Arkansas have declared states of emergency, with Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey declaring a state of emergency for several counties.
In all, about half the US population is expected to experience freezing temperatures over the next week, Axios reported.