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| Fountains freeze due to freezing cold in New Orleans in the southern United States (December 24, 2022) |
An Arctic cold snap swept across much of the United States on Saturday, causing flight cancellations and causing traffic accidents that are expected to set records for the coldest Christmas Eve (also known as Christmas Eve) in several cities in the eastern United States.
Temperatures in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are expected to drop to minus 13 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve on Saturday (Dec. 24), the coldest Christmas Eve record since 1983, the National Weather Service said.
Daytime cold records for Christmas Eve in Athens, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, will also be broken, and Washington will experience its coldest Christmas night since 1989.
The Arctic cold will continue to sweep two-thirds of the eastern United States this holiday weekend, and is expected to break many Christmas cold records.
Fatal crashes have occurred across the United States, with CNN reporting that at least 14 people have died in weather-related accidents.
The National Weather Service said the arctic cold, accompanied by a “bomb cyclone,” received weather warnings for about 240 million people nationwide on Friday, “the worst winter weather warning ever.” Rising
heat demand added to the burden on the nation’s energy system, and the storm wreaked havoc on transmission lines, leaving as many as 1.8 million homes and businesses in the U.S. without power by Saturday morning, affecting travel plans and holiday schedules for millions of Americans.
The American Automobile Association estimates that 112.7 million Americans plan to travel an average of more than 80 kilometers from home between Friday and Jan. 2, but the Arctic storm, which will last until this weekend, could keep many at home.
Flight tracking service FlightAware said nearly 2,000 flights were canceled Saturday and more than 4,000 were postponed across the United States, compared with more than 5,000 canceled Friday.
Due to weather conditions, residents in Buffalo, New York, and surrounding counties around Lake Erie in the west have banned driving by car, and three land bridges connecting Canada in Buffalo have been closed to southbound vehicles in Canada.
The southern border region of the United States with Mexico was also affected by bitter cold and strong winds, with temperatures in the El Paso area of Texas dropping to minus 13 degrees Celsius.
(This article is based on a Reuters report)
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