US winter storm can bring frostbite within minutes
Experts are cautioning that the freezing temperatures causing havoc across the US and Canada can cause frostbite on unprotected skin in just five to ten minutes.
Prior to the busiest travel days of the year, a strong Arctic winter storm issued weather alerts for more than 135 million people. The warnings cover the entire country from coast to coast and extend as far south as Florida and the US-Mexico border.
As the storm worsens, major airports have cancelled thousands of flights. Forecasters believe the recent cold spell will bring about the iciest Christmas in decades.
By the end of this week, some areas of the country could experience temperatures between -70F and -50F, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
The message was that even in major metro areas, like the city of Des Moines, Iowa, frostbite will be a major danger.
Frostbite is caused when blood flow is reduced, often to extremities like the nose and cheeks or fingers and toes. The lack of warm blood can lead to tissue freezing and rupturing, and in some cases, amputation.
Meteorologists say the winter storm could become a “bomb cyclone” by Friday. Bomb cyclone is a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly, with its central air pressure dropping by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
“This is not like a snow day, when you were a kid, this is serious stuff,” President Joe Biden said in a White House briefing on Thursday.
El Paso, Texas, where recently arrived undocumented migrants are camped out on city streets, is expected to experience high wind gusts and temperatures as low as 15F (-9.4C) thanks to the Arctic air mass.
In advance of the storm, Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, proclaimed a state of emergency. Ice jams and the possibility of flooding “are going to cause a lot of devastation in our neighbourhood,” she predicted. Ice jams occur when big chunks of ice stop a river’s flow, which can result in flooding.
The governors of Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma have also declared states of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an “energy emergency”.
Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, described the weather as “unusual and dangerous,” especially as people travel to be with loved ones for Christmas.
Christmas in Florida is expected to be the coldest in 30 years.
The NWS said on Thursday that “life-threatening wind chills” will hit the east coast on Friday, describing it as a “once in a lifetime” winter weather event.
In the Midwest and Canada, snow and strong winds are predicted to inflict damage and power outages. Over the next three days, the NWS cautioned, more than 100 daily low-temperature records might be tied or broken.
US winter storm can bring frostbite within minutes
More than 5,300 flights in the US have already been cancelled on Thursday and Friday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. In anticipation of travel disruptions, major airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.
Roads along the Colorado-Wyoming border were closed on Wednesday due to nearly zero visibility.
