Winter Storm Fern pummeled 34 states in snow and ice on Sunday, cancelling greater than 11,000 flights and leaving greater than 1,000,000 with out energy — with winter warnings nonetheless on for Monday.
As snow and sleet fell throughout greater than two-thirds of the nation, greater than 11,601 flight cancellations had been reported by Sunday night, based on the FlightAware monitoring website.
The entire shortly approached the file 12,143 cancellations that had been seen on March 30, 2020, through the top of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
The climate and plummet in temperatures additionally turned lethal, with no less than two males in Louisiana dying from hypothermia in reference to the storm, based on the state’s Division of Well being.
It brings the entire deaths brought on by the storm system as much as seven after 5 New Yorkers had been discovered useless on Saturday because of the sheer chilly earlier than the snow even fell.
Each American Airways and Delta Air Strains had been pressured to cancel almost half of their flights on Sunday, with each corporations calling off greater than 1,400 journeys every.
New York’s LaGuardia Airport has seen 436 of its outgoing flights cancelled, with the town’s JFK Worldwide Airport cancelling 462 journeys out of the Huge Apple.
Newark Liberty in New Jersey has canceled 84% of its flights, with 444 outgoing journeys known as off.
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Worldwide Airport was the toughest hit air hub, with 597 flights canceled.
The brutal snowfall additionally triggered the Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport in Washington, DC to cancel all of its 820 flights scheduled to reach and depart from the airport.
Observe The Put up’s stay protection on Winter Storm Fern
The cancellations even prolonged far west, with 92 outgoing flights scrapped at LAX, FlightAware reported.
Together with the cancellations, 16,009 delays had been additionally reported for flights coming into and leaving the US, based on FlightAware.
The highly effective storm additionally introduced main blackouts to the affected areas, with greater than 1 million prospects left with out electrical energy on Sunday, based on PowerOutage.us.
Tennessee alone had greater than 300,000 studies of outages, with each Mississippi and Louisiana seeing greater than 140,000 prospects with out energy.
Different states experiencing mass energy outages included Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Alabama.
The outages triggered Vitality Secretary Chris Wright to subject emergency orders for Texas and mid-Atlantic grid operators to maintain energy crops working all through Winter Storm Fern’s rampage.
“As Winter Storm Fern brings excessive chilly and harmful circumstances to the Mid-Atlantic, sustaining reasonably priced, dependable, and safe energy within the PJM area is non-negotiable,” Wright mentioned in a press release.
At the very least 18 states have declared states of emergency because of the storm, with 12 states activating Nationwide Guard Troops to assist, based on the Nationwide Guard Bureau chief normal Steven Nordhaus.
Greater than 190 million Individuals stay below Winter Climate Alerts because the storm is anticipated to ship heavy snow and ice from Arizona to Maine.
The Nationwide Climate Service’s newest forecast known as for heavy snow from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, together with as much as 18 inches in New England by noon Monday.
The Nationwide Climate Service warned that the ultimate complete may very well be as a lot as 14 inches in New York Metropolis by Monday, the very best snow complete since 2021.
Whereas a majority of the nation contends with the snow and freezing climate, these down in Florida loved file warmth on Sunday.
Orlando hit 86 levels, matching the file set in 2023, with residents of Tampa Bay all too joyful to skip the snowstorms up north.
Joan, a 69-year-old Florida transplant from her native northern New Jersey, instructed The Put up she felt “relieved” to not be coping with the climate nightmare her previous neighbors are dealing with.
“I see the climate occurring there and in New York and I don’t miss it one bit,” Joan, clad in a white tank prime and jean shorts, instructed The Put up as she leisurely strolled a boat-filled pier whereas sipping Chardonnay from a to-go cup.
The heat, nevertheless, received’t final, with Central Florida issuing a freeze watch as temperatures are anticipated to plummet following rain on Monday, with Tuesday anticipated to carry temperatures within the mid 30s.
Extra reporting by Georgia Worrell
