Before the holiday weekend, almost 250 million Americans and Canadians are experiencing the cold grip of a huge winter storm linked to at least 19 deaths.
Since Thursday, more than 1.5 million people have lost electricity and dozens of flights have been canceled.
From Texas to Quebec, the enormous storm spans more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers).
A bomb cyclone, which occurs when air pressure plummets, has delivered blizzard conditions to the US-Canada border Great Lakes.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) recorded “zero miles” visibility in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Buffalo, New York, where near-whiteout conditions have been reported.
In Canada, Ontario and Quebec bore the brunt of the Arctic blow, with hundreds of thousands losing electricity.
From British Columbia to Newfoundland, the majority of the country was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.
The temperature in Elk Park, Montana, plummeted to -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45 degrees Celsius), while Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.
Friday night’s temperature in the snow-covered community was 1 degree Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius). Emily, a bartender at Smitty’s Hell Saloon, told the BBC, “It’s quite chilly here, but we’re having an absolute blast.”
After running out of fuel, snowbound Native Americans in South Dakota burnt clothing for warmth, according to tribe officials.
In parts of Pennsylvania and Michigan, heavy snowfall was expected.
The NWS reported that more than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings.
Inundating neighborhoods and bringing down power lines, New England, New York, and New Jersey have experienced coastal flooding.
Some Seattle and Portland residents ice-skated on frozen roadways in the Pacific Northwest.
Even the typically milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia were issued severe cold warnings.
Several storm-related fatalities have been the result of road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pileup in Ohio that claimed the lives of four drivers. Four more perished in separate accidents in the state.
Low pay rates were to blame for the nationwide scarcity of snowplow operators, which worsened travel difficulties.
More than 5,900 US flights were canceled on Friday, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, as passengers struggled to return home for the holidays. Already, 1,600 additional Saturday flights have been canceled.
According to PowerOutage.us, hundreds of thousands of individuals across the United States have been without power since Friday.
To conserve energy, utilities throughout the Tennessee Valley implemented rolling blackouts.
More than 100 daily cold temperature records might be tied or broken in the coming days, according to the NWS. Already, decades-old records have been matched:
- On Thursday, the temperature in Denver, Colorado plummeted to -24 degrees Fahrenheit, its lowest point since the 1990s. Craig McBrierty, who is 34 years old and was born in Scotland but now resides in Denver, stated that it is “colder than I’ve ever experienced.”
- Since 2000, Wichita, Kansas has had its coldest wind chill (-32F).
- Nashville, Tennessee experienced sub-zero temperatures for the first time in 26 years.
- Tuesday in Casper, Wyoming, a new record low of -42F was established.
