A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central US on Sunday, as a disruptive winter storm brought the possibility of the “heaviest snowfall in a decade” to some areas. At the same time, the UK and Germany were walloped by heavy snow and freezing rain that similarly caused travel chaos as roads and airports closed.
In the US., the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings from Kansas and Missouri – where blizzard conditions were reported – to New Jersey into Monday.
“For locations in this region that receive the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the weather service said early Sunday.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually stays penned up around the North Pole, spinning like a top. But sometimes it escapes or stretches down to the US, Europe or Asia — and that’s when large numbers of people experience intense doses of cold. Studies show a fast-warming Arctic gets some of the blame for the increase in polar vortex stretching or wandering.
Severe thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornadoes and hail, were also possible ahead of the storm system’s cold front as it crosses the Lower Mississippi Valley, the National Weather Service warned.
Parts of upstate New York saw a metre or more of snow from a lake effect event that was expected to last until late Sunday afternoon.
Governors in Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency. Whiteout conditions threatened to make driving dangerous to impossible, forecasters warned, heightening the risk of becoming stranded.
Nearly 200 flights in and out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport were cancelled Sunday, according to tracking platform FlightAware.
The Kansas City International Airport temporarily halted flight operations on Saturday afternoon due to ice. Dozens of flights were delayed, including a charter jet transporting the Kansas City Chiefs, before the runways reopened.
Starting Monday, the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling cold and wind chills, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 7 to 14 degrees C. below normal as the polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic.
In Chicago on Sunday, temperatures hovered in the teens (minus 7 to 10 degrees C) and around zero in Minneapolis (minus 18 C), while dropping to 11 below (minus 24 C) in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday evening ahead of the storm and similar declarations were issued in Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and multiple cities in central Illinois.
“This is the real deal,” meteorologist John Gordon said at a press conference in Louisville, Kentucky. “Are the weather people blowing this out of proportion? No.”
UK and Europe
Meanwhile, heavy snow and freezing rain brought widespread disruption across Europe on Sunday, particularly in the UK and Germany, with several major airports forced to suspend flights.
In the north of England, up to 40 cm. of snow was expected in some areas.
The National Grid, which oversees the country’s electricity network, said it had been working to restore power after outages across the country. Power cuts were reported in the English cities of Birmingham and Bristol, and Cardiff, Wales.
Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport and Manchester Airport had to close runways, but were returning back to normal on Sunday. Leeds Bradford Airport took longer to get flights back in the air.
A number of UK train services were cancelled, with National Rail warning of disruption continuing into the working week.
The Environment Agency has also issued eight flood warnings across southern England on the Taw and Avon rivers.
Snow and ice were also causing havoc in Germany, where a bout of wintry weather spread from the southwest. Authorities issued black ice warnings for drivers and pedestrians, advising people to stay home where possible.
Frankfurt airport cancelled 120 of its 1,090 planned takeoffs and landings on Sunday, according to the Fraport press office. At Munich airport, only one runway was open while the other one was being cleared.
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