Over 4,400 flights have been cancelled over two days as a powerful winter storm hits the United States, coinciding with the start of a holiday season that some predict could be the busiest ever, reports Reuters and CNN.
More than 2,350 US flights had been cancelled Thursday and another 2,120 flights for Friday were scrapped, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, while passenger railroad Amtrak cancelled dozens of trains through Christmas, disrupting holiday travel for tens of thousands.
Nearly 177 million Americans – or more than half the US population – will await Christmas weekend under wind chill alerts as a major arctic blast plunges temperatures to dangerous levels in much of the country.
And the snowiest part is yet to come as the perilous winter storm barrels east across the nation.
A developing “bomb cyclone” is set to unload heavy snow and blizzard conditions, especially in the Midwest on Thursday and Friday.
The cold air and storm are affecting nearly every state in some way: More than 200 million people coast-to-coast were under winter-weather alerts for snow or icy conditions Thursday evening, the weather service said.
Some low-temperature records were set Thursday morning in the West and South, and in some cases, they dropped this week with record-breaking speed.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
