Christmas week bomb cyclone flooding, blizzard conditions creating holiday travel nightmare

A blizzard morphed right into a bomb cyclone Friday, creating messy and lethal climate throughout the U.S. within the last countdown to Christmas.

At least 9 deaths have been attributed to the winter storm, and power outages have surged above 1 million.

From coast to coast, tens of millions are seeing ice, harmful chilly, flooding and snow this Christmas week. 

Coastal flooding closes roads 

Coastal flooding in Ogunquit, Maine, on Dec. 23, 2022, throughout a Christmas week winter storm that morphed right into a bomb cyclone. (Image: BeachmereInn / Twitter)

(FOX Weather)

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Coastal flooding is a significant threat alongside a lot of the Northeast and New England coasts.

Widespread average flooding was ongoing Friday, in accordance with the National Weather Service.

At excessive tide, flooding overtook coastal cities in Maine and Connecticut, the place the bomb cyclone prompted High Wind, Coastal Flood and Flash Flood warnings.

Video from Wells and Ogunquit, Maine, confirmed large waves lapping onto coastal roads. Residents had been requested to keep away from driving on ocean-front roadways.

Numerous roads had been closed in New England attributable to robust winds and potential infrastructure injury. 

The FOX Forecast Center warned of practically 3 toes of storm surge in locations like Portland, Maine.

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Meanwhile, within the Great Lakes, huge waves between 14 and 18 toes excessive are forecast for Hamburg, New York, the place some evacuation orders are in place for a coastal neighborhood.

“All my clothing is just a sheet of ice,” FOX Weather correspondent Max Gorden mentioned with waves crashing round him from Lake Erie in Hamburg.

Transportation troubles

A jet takes off at O’Hare International Airport on Dec. 22, 2022, in Chicago. A winter climate system bringing snow, excessive winds and subzero temperatures has wreaked havoc on holiday travel throughout one of many busiest days of the 12 months for airways. (Photo by Scott Olson)

(Getty Images)

It would not matter if vacationers are attending to their locations by aircraft, practice, boat or automotive; this storm hasn’t spared any mode of transportation. 

The winter storm has been blamed for not less than 9 deaths throughout 5 states. 

Eight fatalities had been linked to crashes brought on by harmful street conditions. A person in North Texas died attributable to publicity to sub-freezing temperatures, according to FOX 4 Dallas. 

Airlines have proactively canceled flights with practically 3,700 cancelations nationwide, with probably the most impacts in locations like Seattle, New York, Chicago, Denver and Atlanta.

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Flooding created havoc for the New Jersey Transit System on Friday, masking the tracks in Hoboken.

Flooding on the NJ Transit Hoboken station on Dec. 23, 2022, as a result of winter storm. (Photo: Michelle Romano)

(FOX Weather)

New Jersey Department of Transportation officers positioned restrictions on a number of interstate highways starting Friday attributable to a potential flash freeze. 

Staten Island Ferry service was briefly suspended Friday attributable to excessive winds and tides. 

In the mid-South, wind chills dropped below zero with some areas forecast to drop to 25 beneath. Snow squalls in Tennessee have created low visibility on roads. 

In Ohio, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has declared a Level 2 snow emergency telling drivers that except they “absolutely have to be on the road, please stay off the highways.”

Snow and low visibility closed a number of highways in Kentucky on Friday, together with components of Interstate 71. Several crashes had been reported on Interstate 64, the place slick conditions had been creating hazardous driving.

Bitter chilly, blowing snow and sea smoke

For the Midwest, snow, wind, ice and dangerously chilly temperatures are inflicting crashes and ruining any final–minute purchasing plans in locations like Chicago and Minneapolis.

FOX Weather correspondent Robert Ray was in Chicago, the place sea smoke was rising from Lake Michigan creating an eerie panorama in Chicagoland. 

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Up and down the central U.S., greater than 200 million individuals are below Wind Chill Advisories and Warnings. More than half of the U.S. has snow on the ground.

The South has not been spared from the chilly and wind.

Snow falls on Broadway, a preferred vacationer road in Nashville, Tennessee, on Dec. 22, 2022. (Photo by SETH HERALD / AFP)

(Getty Images)

Morning low temperatures Friday morning had been within the teenagers and single digits as far south as Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, in accordance with the FOX Forecast Center, whereas temperatures remained within the teenagers from Central Texas to Georgia.

Nashville police responded to 34 requires crashes Friday, largely as a result of icy street conditions early within the day. 

WHITE CHRISTMAS FORECAST: BLIZZARD TO LEAVE MUCH OF NATION COVERED IN SNOW FOR HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Ice and chilly proceed

Freezing rain coats the Seattle space on Dec. 23, 2022.

(Scott Sistek / FOX Weather)

The winter storm kicked off within the West earlier this week earlier than it started spreading a blizzard-weather bingo throughout the Midwest and northern Plains. 

Temperatures plummeted by nearly 40 degrees within an hour in Denver on Wednesday, and the life-threatening chill stays in place throughout many areas within the West.

An arctic entrance kicks up mud because it rolls into Denver on Dec. 21, 2022. 

(Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment / FOX Weather)

According to the NWS in Denver, the Mile High City marked its second-coldest day on record Thursday with a low of damaging 15 levels. 

A significant ice storm is shutting down a number of modes of transportation within the Pacific Northwest on Friday.

About a quarter-inch of ice constructed up in Seattle on Friday, creating dangerously slick conditions. 

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reopened a runway Friday after permitting time to de-ice.