Wild Winter Storm Hits Some States In The US

At least 37 people have died as a result of the extended winter storm that hit most of the US this past week, leaving hundreds of thousands without power on Christmas morning. It also brought heavy snowfall, strong winds, and frigid temperatures.

The area around Buffalo, New York, where 43 inches of snow had fallen as of Sunday morning, may have suffered the most damage. More than a dozen individuals died as a result of the heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions, and frozen power substations, according to Erie County officials.

This winter storm destroyed Christmas preparations during the last week by bringing dangerously low temperatures, blizzard conditions, and coastal flooding to practically the entire US.

On Sunday morning, wind chill advisories were in effect for more than 55 million people, and freeze warnings are in place throughout the South. While the eastern two-thirds of the country saw bitterly cold temperatures on Sunday, the blizzard conditions around the Great Lakes remained.

The coldest Christmas in decades was experienced in a few significant cities in the Southeast, Midwest, and East Coast. The 25th of December in Florida will be the coldest since 1983 in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and West Palm Beach.

On Christmas Eve, New York City had record-low temperatures at a number of places, including its JFK and LaGuardia airports. According to the National Weather Service, the peak temperature in Central Park was only 15 degrees, making it the second-coldest December 24 in at least 150 years.

Later in the week, temperatures are expected to increase with a much-appreciated warming trend and above-average temperatures.

According to PowerOutage.us, nearly half of the 250,000 homes and businesses without electricity service in the US as of approximately 11 a.m. ET Sunday were in Maine and New York. Since the storm's beginning, there have occasionally been more than one million clients without power.

Power grid struggling with cold

Customers were encouraged to conserve energy and set temperatures lower than usual from early Saturday until 10 a.m. Sunday due to capacity being strained by demand in at least 13 states in the country's eastern half.

In all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, the operator, PJM Interconnection, provides service to nearly 65 million people. In case of excessive strain, rolling blackouts, the operator said, could occur.

Con Edison and Natural Grid US, two utilities in New York, both asked consumers to practice energy efficiency, citing severe weather conditions and increased energy demand on interstate pipelines bringing natural gas into the city.

The US Department of Energy, however, on Friday declared an emergency due to a Texas electricity deficit, allowing the state's energy supplier to exceed environmental emission limits until energy use declines.

Cold weather in Jackson, Mississippi is making it difficult to fix a significant water main break that occurred late Saturday and reduced water pressure for locals, according to city authorities.

More than 5,000 flights were canceled on Friday, more than 3,400 on Saturday, and more than 2,800 on Christmas Day due to the extreme weather, which has significantly hampered travel over the busy holiday weekend.