'Ice Friday' spells flight cancellations, power outages across South and Midwest
Brandon Wade / EPA
An American Airlines employee hands out cots to stranded airline passengers at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday.
By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor
Hundreds of flights were delayed and more 100,000 people are facing power outages after a huge storm dumped snow and ice across a large swath of the South and Midwest, officials said Friday.
Some 32 million people are expected to be affected by the severe winter weather, which has prompted at least five governors to declare a state of emergency.
Dallas-Fort Worth was the largest metropolitan area hit by ice, and an area from Oklahoma City to Columbus, Ohio, has seen between 5 and 10 inches of snow, Michael Palmer, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel, said.
More than 500 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled on Thursday and Friday, according to FlightAware.com.
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"Some roads will be impassible, but the biggest issue will be the power outages," Palmer said. "The ice weighs down on trees and power lines and brings them down.
"A lot of these places, especially in the more rural areas, are going to stay below freezing for some time so you will not see much the way of melting. They could be without power for a long while."
Palmer said some 70,000 people in the Dallas-Forth Worth area were already without power and he expected that figure to hit at least 100,000 by the time the storm dissipated on Saturday.
Elsewhere, temperatures plummeted in most states across the contiguous U.S. except on the East Coast, which was warmer than usual.
The cold blast stretched into California, where farmers in the San Joaquin Valley were pumping water into the soil and using wind machines to protect the area’s $2 billion citrus crop.
In the North, in Rapid City, S.D., temperatures became so low that an outdoor ice skating rink was forced to close.
And two dozen ice-related smashes were reported on the roads in Illinois, in Madison and St. Clair counties, on Thursday.
School classes were canceled in parts of Idaho, Illinois, and Minnesota.
One Texas store manager, James McGilberry, dubbed the day "Ice Friday," as schools in the state began canceling classes and shoppers lined up to buy food and other supplies.
The Dallas Home Depot manager told The Associated Press his store was already running out of firewood and ice melt by Thursday afternoon.
"It's almost like a Black Friday," McGilberry said, "but I guess we'll call it an Ice Friday."
The storm was caused by a cold air mass pushing south from Canada and colliding with moisture streaming up from the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Weather Service issued a swath of winter storm warnings which covered parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Luis Sanchez Saturno / New Mexican via AP
Cesar Velasco, from Albuquerque, N.M., sits in his jackknifed 18-wheeler on the side of I-25 Thursday, in La Bajada, N.M.
Ice storm warnings stretched from Dallas-Fort Worth across southern Oklahoma and central Arkansas and into western Tennessee.
Palmer said Texas would be spared snow, but anywhere further north should expect coverings as well as temperatures as low as -20 degrees Fahrenheit throughout Friday. This could stretch up to southern parts of New York and western Massachusetts, but would become rain before hitting New York City.
The storm would begin to dissipate on Friday night and by tomorrow it would be largely over, Palmer said.
Meanwhile, another storm system was descending on the West Coast from Alaska.
This is expected to dump snow on coastal areas of Oregon and northern California throughout Friday, before moving onto the Sierra Nevada early Saturday.
It will then head toward the Midwest – which will then receive a “double whammy” of winter weather -- on Sunday, Palmer said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Brandon Wade / EPAAn American Airlines employee hands out cots to stranded airline passengers at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday.
By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor
Hundreds of flights were delayed and more 100,000 people are facing power outages after a huge storm dumped snow and ice across a large swath of the South and Midwest, officials said Friday.
Some 32 million people are expected to be affected by the severe winter weather, which has prompted at least five governors to declare a state of emergency.
Dallas-Fort Worth was the largest metropolitan area hit by ice, and an area from Oklahoma City to Columbus, Ohio, has seen between 5 and 10 inches of snow, Michael Palmer, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel, said.
More than 500 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled on Thursday and Friday, according to FlightAware.com.
Advertise | AdChoices
"Some roads will be impassible, but the biggest issue will be the power outages," Palmer said. "The ice weighs down on trees and power lines and brings them down.
"A lot of these places, especially in the more rural areas, are going to stay below freezing for some time so you will not see much the way of melting. They could be without power for a long while."
Palmer said some 70,000 people in the Dallas-Forth Worth area were already without power and he expected that figure to hit at least 100,000 by the time the storm dissipated on Saturday.
Elsewhere, temperatures plummeted in most states across the contiguous U.S. except on the East Coast, which was warmer than usual.
The cold blast stretched into California, where farmers in the San Joaquin Valley were pumping water into the soil and using wind machines to protect the area’s $2 billion citrus crop.
In the North, in Rapid City, S.D., temperatures became so low that an outdoor ice skating rink was forced to close.
And two dozen ice-related smashes were reported on the roads in Illinois, in Madison and St. Clair counties, on Thursday.
School classes were canceled in parts of Idaho, Illinois, and Minnesota.
One Texas store manager, James McGilberry, dubbed the day "Ice Friday," as schools in the state began canceling classes and shoppers lined up to buy food and other supplies.
The Dallas Home Depot manager told The Associated Press his store was already running out of firewood and ice melt by Thursday afternoon.
"It's almost like a Black Friday," McGilberry said, "but I guess we'll call it an Ice Friday."
The storm was caused by a cold air mass pushing south from Canada and colliding with moisture streaming up from the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Weather Service issued a swath of winter storm warnings which covered parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Luis Sanchez Saturno / New Mexican via APCesar Velasco, from Albuquerque, N.M., sits in his jackknifed 18-wheeler on the side of I-25 Thursday, in La Bajada, N.M.
Ice storm warnings stretched from Dallas-Fort Worth across southern Oklahoma and central Arkansas and into western Tennessee.
Palmer said Texas would be spared snow, but anywhere further north should expect coverings as well as temperatures as low as -20 degrees Fahrenheit throughout Friday. This could stretch up to southern parts of New York and western Massachusetts, but would become rain before hitting New York City.
The storm would begin to dissipate on Friday night and by tomorrow it would be largely over, Palmer said.
Meanwhile, another storm system was descending on the West Coast from Alaska.
This is expected to dump snow on coastal areas of Oregon and northern California throughout Friday, before moving onto the Sierra Nevada early Saturday.
It will then head toward the Midwest – which will then receive a “double whammy” of winter weather -- on Sunday, Palmer said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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