Temporary A "historic" snowstorm hits the eastern US
White and icy will be Christmas in the United States
.
An Arctic cold front has imposed record low temperatures across much of the central and eastern part of the country, a storm
described as "once in a generation"
that has caused at least 2,000 flights to be canceled and another 4,700 delayed, according to Flight Aware- in the middle of the Christmas season and with the airports overflowing.
President Joe Biden has alerted the population to the dangers of the storm, which he has described as "dangerous and threatening" and which is affecting more than 100 million people across the country.
One day after receiving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, Biden sent a message to the nation from the White House in which he asked to take the situation seriously.
"This is really a very serious weather alert
," he said.
"And it goes from Oklahoma to Wyoming, and from Wyoming to Maine. And it's a real consequence. So I encourage everyone to pay attention to local advisories."
Points like northern Idaho have reached 50 degrees below zero.
In Casper, Wyoming, a new record was reached, 41 below freezing,
beating Christmas 1998 by one degree
.
Also in Montana the thermometers have dropped to unprecedented levels, between 27 and 36 degrees below zero.
In total, more than 100 records are expected to be exceeded throughout the country in the coming days,
with extreme situations in cities such as Chicago, Denver or Washington.
Planes stopped at the Mitchell airport in Milwaukee. Mark Hoffman / AP
Even in Canada, where harsh winters are already a tradition, they were preparing for more extreme conditions than normal, with heavy snowfall and winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear, has asked the population
to avoid traveling and already be at home after noon,
when they expect the arctic front to unload strongly.
In Chicago, almost 300 salt spreaders
have been assigned to cover more than 10,000 kilometers of streets
in anticipation of the strong storm.
The snowfall alert is in effect until 6 a.m. Saturday.
The advice of experts on radio and television networks have proliferated in recent hours, warning of the possibility of being caught in traffic jams in the middle of a storm.
They recommend always carrying food, water and a well-charged mobile phone in the car, as well as
sleeping bags, hats, gloves, a shovel, medicine and even a can of gasoline
.
The National Weather Service has warned of a "bomb cyclone" that will bring strong winds and extreme cold for the rest of the week.
"These temperatures, combined with sustained winds of 30 to 50 kilometers per hour and
higher wind gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour
will continue to result in a wind chill as low as 40 degrees below zero" or less through the end of the week. the agency alerted.
Even in Florida the Christmas season will be especially cold.
The Coast Guard has warned immigrants trying to reach the United States that conditions
may be especially dangerous due to the weather
.
Biden, in a meeting with his advisers on the storm.Brendan Smialowski / AFP
"Winter weather is unpredictable in the Florida Straits," Mark Cobb of Coast Guard District 7 said in a statement.
"It can happen that these rustic and unsafe boats capsize and people lose their lives."
On Thursday, authorities repatriated 67 Cubans sighted off the Florida coast.
The explanation for the chaos that is forming in much of the country
is in the polar vortex
, an area of low pressure and cold air that occasionally turns south of the pole and unloads storms and heavy snowfall.
In February of last year, a similar situation was experienced when those cold air currents reached Texas, causing the death of at least 250 people.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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