LAST UPDATE | 27 Dec 2022

TEMPERATURES WERE EXPECTED to moderate across the eastern and midwest United States today, after days of freezing weather from “the blizzard of the century” left at least 49 dead and caused Christmas travel chaos.

Blizzard conditions persisted in parts of the northeastern US, the stubborn remnants of a sprawl of extreme weather that gripped the country over several days, causing widespread power outages, travel delays and deaths in nine states, according to official figures.

In New York state, authorities described ferocious conditions, particularly in Buffalo, with hours-long whiteouts, bodies being discovered in vehicles and under snow banks, and emergency personnel going “car to car” searching for survivors.

The perfect storm of fierce snow squalls, howling wind and sub-zero temperatures forced the cancelation of more than 15,000 US flights in recent days, including nearly 4,000 on Monday, according to tracking site Flightaware.com.

Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, where Buffalo is located, called the blizzard “the worst storm probably in our lifetime” – even for an area accustomed to punishing snowfall.

And he warned: “This is not the end yet.”

Some people, he noted, had been stranded in their cars for more than two days.

Speaking at a press conference earlier in the day, Poloncarz said Erie’s death toll would likely surpass that of Buffalo’s infamous blizzard of 1977, when nearly 30 people died.

US President Joe Biden said his prayers were with the victims’ families and offered federal assistance yesterday to the hard-hit state.

Those who lost their lives around Buffalo were found in cars, homes and snowbanks. Some died while shovelling snow, while others perished when emergency crews could not respond in time to medical crises.

Scientists say climate change may have contributed to the intensity of the storm.

According to Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Colorado, Boulder, this is because the atmosphere can carry more water vapour, which acts as fuel.

The blizzard roared across western New York on Friday and Saturday. With many shops in the Buffalo area closed and driving bans in place, some people pleaded on social media for donations of basic supplies such as food and nappies.

Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the US National Weather Service, said relief is coming later this week, with forecasts of a slow rise in temperatures.

Cook said the bomb cyclone effect – when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm – has weakened. It developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions including heavy winds and snow.

3,410 domestic and international flights were cancelled in America yesterday as of about 3pm EDT (8pm GMT), according to the tracking site FlightAware.

The site said Southwest Airlines had 2,497 cancellations, about 60% of its scheduled flights and 10 times more than any other major US carrier.

Southwest said the weather was improving, which would “stabilise and improve our situation”.

Based on FlightAware data, airports all across the US were suffering from cancellations and delays, including Denver, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle, Baltimore and Chicago.

New York governor Kathy Hochul toured the aftermath in Buffalo – her hometown –, calling the blizzard “one for the ages”.

She said almost every fire engine in the city became stranded on Saturday.

Hochul noted the storm came a little over a month after the region was inundated with another “historic” snowfall. Between the two storms, snowfall totals are not far off from the 95.4in the area normally sees across an entire winter season.

The storm also knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle.

Storm-related deaths were reported nationwide, including at least eight following crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. A woman also died after falling through Wisconsin river ice, while there was a fatal fire at a Kansas homeless persons camp.

In Jackson, Mississippi, crews struggled to get water through the city’s beleaguered water system, meaning many areas had no water or low water pressure.

On Christmas Day, residents were told to boil their drinking water due to water pipes bursting in the frigid temperatures.