Erin Hooley/AP
On Friday, 5,934 flights were canceled after nearly 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. Cancellations were highest Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, New York’s LaGuardia, Chicago O’Hare, Denver International and Detroit Metro Airport, according to FlightAware data. In Canada, Toronto topped flight cancellations. In addition to the cancellations, there were 10,949 delays among the flights still going out. For Saturday, more than 1,500 flights had already been canceled as of 7 a.m. But for Christmas Day, just 45 flights have been canceled so far. (CNN)
Kerem Yücel /Minnesota Public Radio via AP
—This week’s severe winter conditions across the United States have been costly, leaving at least 15 dead as of Saturday morning. Adding to the total, the Tennessee Department of Health confirmed one storm-related fatality Friday, while Wisconsin State Patrol reported one fatal crash due to the weather on Thursday. Previously reported deaths include four in Ohio as a result of weather-related auto accidents, three in Kansas due to traffic accidents, three in Kentucky, one in Oklahoma, two in Erie County, New York, Friday evening, and one in Missouri when a caravan slid off an icy road and into a frozen creek.
—Power outages remained at staggering numbers across the United States Saturday morning, leaving over a million customers in the dark as the Christmas weekend began. According to PowerOutage.US, outages topped 1.375 million at 7 a.m. EST, hitting primarily on the eastern coastline.
—Eleven NFL games will take place on Saturday, and thousands of fans attending games across the Midwest and Northeast may have to endure Arctic air to cheer on their favorite team in person.
—Rabbit Kettle, Northwest Territories, became home of the coldest temperature recorded in Canada during the month of December in over 40 years on Friday. The location accomplished this freezing milestone when it recorded an astonishing reading of 53.4 degrees C below zero (64 F below zero).
Accuweather
The immense frigid blast is creating hazards from the U.S.-Canadian border to the Gulf Coast, and spans the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast. The National Weather Service estimated more than 200 million people were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning in “one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”
High winds produced dangerous wind chill readings across the central and eastern U.S. last night, with the wind chill in Denver reaching minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit and Cheyenne, Wyo., falling to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit.
More here: National Weather Service and NPR
