BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Brutal cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills remained across much of the U.S. on Monday, promising the coldest ever Ever for Iowa The presidential nomination contest, the traveler's blockade, and the testing of NFL fans' mettle in Buffalo for playoff game Which was delayed a day due to snow blown by the wind.
About 150 million Americans have received a gust warning or a warning for dangerous cold and wind, as an air mass from the Arctic flows south and east across the United States, said Zach Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Sunday morning saw temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees F (minus 6.7 degrees C) to minus 40 degrees F (minus 40 degrees C) in northern and northeastern Montana. The temperature in Saco, Montana, dropped to -51 F (minus 26 C). Taylor said subzero lows reached as far south as Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and parts of Indiana.
About 110,000 homes and businesses were without power in the United States late Monday, most of them in Oregon, after widespread outages that began on Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that strong winds expected Monday and the threat of a snowstorm Tuesday could delay repair efforts.
Classes were canceled Tuesday for students in major cities including Chicago — the nation's fourth-largest public school district — Denver, Dallas, Fort Worth and Portland.
The storm was blamed for the deaths of at least four people over the weekend around Portland, including two people who died of suspected hypothermia. Another man was killed after a tree fell on his home and a woman died in a fire that spread from an open flame stove after a tree fell on an RV.
Three deaths of homeless people in the Milwaukee area are being investigated. Officials said they likely died of hypothermia. A 64-year-old man was found dead under a bridge on Friday, a 69-year-old man was declared dead after being found in a car on Saturday, and on Monday a 40-year-old man was found dead near railway tracks, authorities said. . The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said.
In Utah, where nearly four feet (1.2 meters) of snow fell in the mountains over a 24-hour period, a snowmobile was struck and killed Sunday night by a semi-trailer about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Salt Lake City, according to It was reported by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Utah Highway Patrol. The victim was trying to cross US Highway 40.
In Wyoming, a backcountry skier was killed after triggering an avalanche 50 feet (15 m) wide. The victim was swept into a gully and through bushes and trees, then remained buried for about fifteen minutes before a companion found her in the mountains south of Alpine, Wyoming, Sunday afternoon, according to the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.
This is the third death in an avalanche in the United States in recent days, after an accident that occurred on Wednesday in A California Ski Resort It killed one person and injured three others, and another resulted in the death of one person on Thursday in Idaho Backcountry Close to the Montana border.
Snow and avalanche dangers have closed many roads across the Rocky Mountains. East of Vail, Colorado, officials closed 20 miles (32 kilometers) of Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state.
Crews continued work Monday to clear snow after a weekend avalanche briefly trapped the occupants of 10 vehicles and closed the road over Berthoud Pass in central Colorado. Kaitlyn Punzalan was in a car with her husband and some friends heading home to Denver when they were caught in the slide.
A pedestrian is huddled as she crosses a street in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Sunday, January 14, 2024. A wind chill warning is in effect as dangerous cold conditions continue in the Chicago area. (AP Photo/Nam Wai. Ha)
“My friend was driving my car and all of a sudden he said, ‘Oh, an avalanche!’ We look up and see all this snow falling toward us,” Punzalan said. KUSA-TV. She said that the digging process took about an hour with the help of others who were on the road. No injuries were reported.
The Buffalo Bills renewed their call for shovels at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on Monday morning to dig out more than a foot and a half of snow that fell over a stormy weekend.
Crews had cleared the grass by mid-morning. Citizens shoveled for $20 an hour in temperatures in the teens to clear seats for fans before the game at 4:30 p.m.
At first glance, it was a daunting task. Buffalo's Bob Isaac admitted a few hours after his 7:30 a.m. arrival that he viewed his work as a contribution to the team.
Snow-covered vehicles sit in a rental parking lot at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. A wind chill warning is in effect as dangerously cold conditions persist in the Chicago area. (AP Photo/Nam Wai. Ha)
“You have to remember you're a Bills fan. It's all part of the deal,” he said.
Nearby cities saw higher snow totals, with 41 inches in Hamburg and Angola.
The presidential campaigns were anticipating that cold and dangerous travel conditions would hamper turnout for the Iowa caucuses, Inaugural competition In the months-long Republican presidential primary. Voting was scheduled to begin Monday evening.
Transportation officials in Portland, Oregon, urged residents to avoid travel throughout Tuesday, as forecasts of up to a half-inch of freezing rain could make roads dangerously slick with ice and weigh down trees and power lines, knocking them down.
Multnomah County, home to Portland, said it served a record number of people — 1,136 people — at a record 12 emergency shelters overnight Sunday night as low temperatures reached 17 degrees (minus 8.3 degrees Celsius), according to the National Weather Service. The county estimated it needed 100 additional volunteers to respond to the high demand in a city where thousands of homeless people live on its streets.
“As we head toward day five of the weather emergency, the real constraint for us now is staffing,” said Dan Field, director of the joint county-city office of homelessness. “We must have enough people to keep the doors of emergency shelters open.”
Air travelers across the country have faced delays and cancellations. Flight tracking service FlightAware reported about 2,900 flight cancellations Monday within, within or outside the United States.
The National Weather Service issued freeze warnings for the Deep South. Meteorologists in Mississippi warned of a “prolonged freeze” that could continue in some locations until Thursday.
Maximum temperatures are expected to reach 15 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 to 6.7 degrees Celsius) across Oklahoma, Arkansas, northern Texas and western Tennessee. Louisiana and Alabama also received freeze warnings.
The winter storm affected travel across central Appalachia, with areas of Tennessee seeing up to 8 inches of snow. The Tennessee Legislature has canceled its meetings for this week.
Snow accumulation is expected to continue into early Tuesday with extremely cold chills.
With the possibility of record low temperatures in Texas, the state's electrical grid operator asked consumers to conserve energy. About 11,000 customers were without power in Texas on Monday, according to CNN poweroutage.us.
Taylor said light snow is expected in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast during Monday and Tuesday, including 2 to 3 inches of snow in Washington, D.C. — which would be the heaviest single-day snowfall in the nation's capital in at least two years. Years.
In the coming days, another round of cold air is expected to head south into the northern Plains and Midwest before reaching the Deep South by the end of the week.
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Associated Press journalists who contributed included Julie Walker in New York City; John Wawrow in Orchard Park, New York; Jack Dora in Bismarck, North Dakota; Travis Lawler in Nashville; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon. Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Brown contributed from Billings, Montana.
