Arctic ‘bomb cyclone’ grips US, sparking Biden warning
- A once-in-a-generation winter storm could see temperatures plunge to as low as -40 degrees Celsius
- The freezing weather has caused Christmas travel chaos with thousands of flights in the US cancelled
02:25
Millions of Americans face extreme cold as Arctic blast threatens Christmas travel
A dangerously frigid arctic air mass gripped a vast expanse of the United States ahead of what could be one of the coldest Christmas Days on record, as a looming winter storm threatened to upend travel plans for millions of Americans.
Leading into the holiday weekend, the impending storm was expected to bring blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes region, up to 5cm (2 inches) of rain followed by a flash freeze on the East Coast, wind gusts of 100km/h (60mph) and bitter cold as far south as the Mexican border.
As the storm took shape over the Great Lakes on Thursday, a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone was likely to develop from a “rapidly deepening low-pressure” system, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
The cyclone could spawn snowfalls of a 1.25 cm per hour and howling winds gusting to 97km/h from the Upper Midwest to the interior Northeast, producing blizzard conditions and near-zero visibility, the weather service said.
Combined with the arctic cold, wind-chill factors as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) were forecast in the High Plains, the northern Rockies and Great Basin, the NWS said.
Exposure to such conditions without adequate protection can cause frostbite within minutes.