Arctic freeze continues to blast much of nation
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Brutally cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills stayed put across much of the U.S. Monday, promising the coldest temperatures ever for Iowa’s presidential nominating contest, holding up travelers, and testing the mettle of NFL fans in Buffalo for a playoff game that was delayed a day by windwhipped snow.
About 150 million Americans were under a windchill warning or advisory for dangerous cold and wind, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md., as an Arctic air mass spilled south and eastward across the U.S.
Sunday morning saw temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 40 F in northern and northeast Montana. Saco, Mont., dropped to minus 51 F. Subzero lows reached as far south as Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and parts of Indiana, Taylor said.
About 114,000 U.S. homes and businesses were without power late Monday, the bulk of them in Oregon after widespread outages that started Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that strong winds forecast for Monday and threat of an ice storm Tuesday could delay restoration efforts.
The storm was blamed for at least four weekend deaths around Portland, including two people who died of suspected hypothermia. Another man was killed after a tree fell on his house and a woman died in a fire that spread from an open-flame stove after a tree fell onto an RV.
Three deaths of homeless people were under investigation in the Milwaukee area. They likely died from hypothermia, officials said.
In Utah, where almost four feet of snow fell in the mountains over a 24-hour period, a snowmobiler was struck and killed Sunday night by a semitrailer about 70 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
In Wyoming, a backcountry skier was killed after triggering a 50-feet wide avalanche. The victim was swept into a gully and through brush and trees, then remained buried for about 15 minutes before being found by a companion in the mountains south of Alpine, Wyo., on Sunday afternoon, according to the BridgerTeton Avalanche Center.
It marked the third U.S. avalanche fatality in recent days.
Swirling snow and avalanche dangers prompted numerous road closures across the Rocky Mountains. East of the resort community of Vail, Colo., officials closed a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 70, the primary east-west highway through the state.
Air travelers across the country experienced delays and cancellations. The flight tracking service FlightAware reported about 2,900 cancellations Monday within, into or out of the United States.
Freeze warnings were issued by the National Weather Service across the Deep South.
Highs of 15 or 20 degrees F were expected across Oklahoma, Arkansas, northern Texas and western Tennessee. Louisiana and Alabama also had freeze warnings.
Light snow was expected through the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast through Monday and Tuesday, Taylor said, including 2 to 3 inches of snow forecast for Washington, D.C. — what would be the most snowfall in a day in the nation’s capital in at least two years.