DETROIT, Dec. 22 (BNA): An Arctic blast ripped across a wide swath of the United States on Wednesday, sweeping much of the country with bitter cold and life-threatening wind chills ahead of a powerful winter storm expected to complicate holiday travel. Millions of Americans.
Reuters reports that some 200 million people in the lower 48 states have been subject to severe weather warnings as a freezing air mass descends from the northern plains, sending temperatures plummeting.
Temperatures in Denver, for example, on Wednesday — the first official day of winter — fell from a daytime high of 51 F (10 C) to low single digits by evening. The mercury was expected to drop below zero by Thursday morning.
The weather service reported a 37-degree drop in the temperature in one hour at Denver International Airport — from 42 degrees Fahrenheit to -5 Fahrenheit — a record low for that location.
“These are the kind of changes that will occur as this front pushes south: rapid dips in temperatures, sometimes 50 or more degrees cooler than the day before,” Oravik said. “It’s a very strong, powerful system.”
Severe weather has coincided with the start of a holiday travel season that is shaping up to be one of the busiest in decades. Roughly 113 million people can travel more than 50 miles (30 km) from their homes starting Friday, according to the American Automobile Association, assuming winter conditions don’t spoil their plans.
Fueled by moisture from the Great Lakes, the impending storm could dump up to a foot (0.3 meters) of snow in the upper Midwest between Wednesday and Friday, with blizzard conditions stretching from the northern Plains states into the Great Lakes region.
By Thursday night, a so-called “bomb cyclone” is likely to form as a strong Arctic front sweeps through the Great Lakes region, bringing temperatures to record lows on the Gulf Coast and eastern United States by Friday, Oravik said.
Wind warnings of hail and deep freeze extended across much of Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, with a severe freeze watch posted in Florida.
ZHB