Ice The right wing across America is expected to slowly relinquish its grip as the weekend continues.
Disruptions continued to be reported Saturday at major airports, including Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, while temperatures are expected to drop after sunset Saturday, again increasing the risk of snow melting, making roads treacherous.
“I certainly don't think everything will melt completely,” said Scott Carroll, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Atlanta. “There will probably still be some slush, especially on secondary roads. And then the big concern after that is we're expecting really cool temperatures tonight as the clouds continue to clear.”
While flights were operating, airlines were already piling up new cancellations and delays after Friday's weather slowed air travel.
By 10 am on Saturday, More than 300 flights in and out of Atlanta were canceledWhile more than 250 were delayed, according to tracking software FlightAware. More than 200 flights in and out of Charlotte were canceled, while more than 100 were delayed.
Sarah Wethera Wanyoike, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, was beginning her second day Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport On Saturday. Wanyoike arrived at the world's busiest airport before sunrise on Friday to catch an Ethiopian Airlines flight on her way to her job in Zimbabwe.
The plane boarded after a delay on Friday but never took off, taxiing around, dropping off passengers back at the gate and not taking off for six hours. Wanyoike compared her failed trip to a “hostage situation”, saying that her luggage was left stuck on the plane and she did not dare try to get home as she was told to be back at the gate before dawn on Saturday Was.
“People slept on the floor with their children last night,” Wanyoike said.
But on Saturday morning the flight was delayed again and Wanyoike was deeply disappointed by the lack of communication from the airline.
“It's not even on the airport board,” he said. “There's no sign we're leaving.”
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delta air linesThe largest carrier at the Atlanta airport said late Friday it was “working to recover” on Saturday, adding that cancellations on early morning flights would be the worst because crews and airplanes were not where they needed to be. Should have happened after the airline canceled. 1,100 flights on Friday.
Major roads across the south were mostly clear, but few people were out Saturday morning.
The Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks game at State Farm Arena was postponed due to inclement weather and dangerous icy conditions in the Atlanta area, the National Basketball Association said.
The storm that brought the snow to the south is forecast to move out to sea from the East Coast on Saturday, leaving behind blowing snow. appalachian mountains And New England.
Freezing rain caused power outages to top 110,000 in Georgia on Friday night, with many of those outages being restored Saturday. The National Weather Service reported 0.1 inch to 0.25 inches of snow accumulation due to freezing rain around Atlanta. It was not as bad as forecast, especially in southern areas of the city, where temperatures rose high enough to prevent freezing. But Carroll said high winds Saturday could still pose a risk where snow is stuck.
“If there are any frozen branches and limbs, it's possible some of them could be brought down by the high winds during the day today,” Carroll said.
The storm brought heavy snowfall and slick roads to much of Texas and Oklahoma earlier this week before moving eastward. Arkansas and North Carolina mobilized National Guard troops for tasks such as helping stranded motorists, and governors in several states declared states of emergency.
School was canceled for millions of children Friday from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina, giving them a rare snow day.
The storm resulted in more than a year's worth of snowfall in some cities.
Parts of Arkansas reported falls of up to a foot, and there were reports of nearly 10 inches in Little Rock, which is an average of 3.8 inches per year.
More than 7 inches of snow fell at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. The city typically receives 2.7 inches (6.9 cm) of rainfall per year.
The storm dropped up to 7 inches of rainfall in some places in central Oklahoma and northern Texas.
The polar vortex of extremely cold air usually rotates around the North Pole, but sometimes it moves southward into the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Some experts say that, paradoxically, such incidents are occurring more frequently due to a warming world.
The cold snap comes as rare wildfires spread across the Los Angeles area in January.