Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Canceled Flights, Snow and a 'Bomb Cyclone'

 
 
Slide 1 of 20: In this photo provided by Caltrans, are cars and trucks in stopped traffic on Interstate 5 near Dunsmuir, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019. Thanksgiving travel has been snarled in some places by two powerful storms. A winter storm blamed for one death and hundreds of canceled flights in the West moved into the Midwest on Wednesday and dropped close to a foot of snow in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin. (Caltrans via AP)
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1/20 SLIDES © Caltrans via AP Photo
Nearly 50 million people are expected to hit the roadways this Thanksgiving holiday season, the highest number since 2005 and a record 31.6 million travelers are expected to take to the skies on U.S. airlines, up 3.7% from last year. This year,winter storms are expected to cause traffic and airline delays across the country.
(Pictured) In this photo provided by Caltrans, are cars and trucks in stopped traffic on Interstate 5 near Dunsmuir, Calif., on Nov. 27. 
Slideshow by photo services
[Read live updates on Wednesday as weather disrupts Thanksgiving travel across the U.S.]
Heavy snows, reaching 30 inches in some areas, disrupted travel across the center of the United States on Tuesday and threatened to make more trouble on Wednesday as the Thanksgiving holiday approached. Hundreds of flights were canceled, thousands of travelers were stranded at airports, and stretches of major highways were closed because of unsafe conditions and periods of poor-to-nonexistent visibility.
At the same time, the Northwest was warned of a separate “bomb cyclone” storm blowing in from the Pacific Ocean that could sock that region with powerful winds and heavy precipitation.
Some coastal areas in Northern California and Oregon should brace for “stronger than hurricane-force winds,” the National Weather Service said, warning that the high winds could bring down power lines, rip branches from trees and threaten to push eighteen-wheelers and RVs off the roads.
The foul weather scrambled plans during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, when more than 55 million people were expected to hit the roads or take to the skies.
Almost 500 flights were canceled to and from Denver International Airport beginning late on Monday, and hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport overnight, as nearly a foot of snow fell on the Denver area by Tuesday morning. A number of airlines, including American, Southwest and Delta, issued travel waivers, allowing passengers to change their flights without incurring fees.
a tree covered in snow: Heavy snowfall blanketed parts of Colorado on Tuesday. Some areas saw as much as 30 inches in 20 hours.© Chet Strange for The New York Times Heavy snowfall blanketed parts of Colorado on Tuesday. Some areas saw as much as 30 inches in 20 hours.Rae Conlon, one of the many travelers in Denver who were trying to get home for the holiday, said she hoped to get to Cleveland in time for her family’s annual Thanksgiving bake-off. But with severe winter weather advisories posted across the Midwest, she was in limbo on Tuesday, waiting to hear whether her flight would even take off.
Ms. Conlon, 23, said she had thought about leaving home at the start of the week, but the direct flights then were all fully booked. To change her plans, she would have had to buy a new ticket at five times the original fare — for a 12-hour trip with two layovers.
Being stuck in Denver now because of the weather would “just be a bummer,” she said, “because I haven’t seen my family in a while.”
A fast-moving blizzard through the Midwest.
Although a late November snowstorm is no surprise in the Rockies, the Plains and the upper Midwest, the severity of this one was notable. It dropped about a foot of snow on Cheyenne, Wyo., beginning Monday afternoon, and was threatening the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area with its biggest November snowfall in nearly a decade. Areas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were expected to receive between six and 12 inches of snow Tuesday evening.
a sign on a pole: The foul weather was already scrambling travel plans.© Chet Strange for The New York Times The foul weather was already scrambling travel plans.Kyle Fredin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Denver, said on Tuesday that the storm, which produced blizzard conditions and near-zero visibility as it blew across Colorado on Tuesday, should not be taken lightly: “We’re sending that message pretty firmly, that travel will be difficult, if not impossible across some routes.”
Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, was closed in both directions near Denver on Tuesday.
The University of South Dakota, University of Wyoming and several colleges in the Minneapolis area canceled classes for the day to give students an early start on holiday travel. With snow blanketing Colorado, a number of local and state government offices there also shut down.
A ‘bomb cyclone’ in the Northwest.
Strong winds knocked down trees and heavy snow forced the authorities to shut down major freeways in Northern California and Oregon as a winter storm barreled into the West on Tuesday evening.
The storm, driven by a strong jet stream, was expected to continue through Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
Forecasters said that winds were expected to reach 100 miles per hour in places — well above hurricane force, which starts at 74 m.p.h. The National Weather Service reported one wind speed reading of 93 m.p.h. on Tuesday near Lake Tahoe.
Marc Spilde, a meteorologist at the Weather Service station in Medford, Ore., said the last time a comparable storm hit the region was Columbus Day in 1962.
“We really haven’t seen a storm system like this originating from where it is,” he said.
The storm blanketed the Cascades and northern Sierras with heavy snow. Interstate 5, the major north-south highway through the region, was shut down in two different areas in Northern California because of snow, according to the California Department of Transportation.
Pacific Power reported more than 2,700 customers without power in Oregon and almost 14,000 without power in California as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The storm was expected to fit the definition of a bomb cyclone, in which barometric pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. In this case, forecasters expect the pressure at the center of the storm to fall by 50 millibars, to 970 from 1,020. Differences in air pressure are what power a storm’s winds, “so this drop is very significant, very large,” Mr. Spilde said.
In the Northeast, wind, rain and snow.
Areas of the East Coast can expect some wet and windy weather, with heavy snow in northern New England and northern parts of Maine later in the week.
Showers on Wednesday night and Thursday are expected to be accompanied by winds between 20 and 30 miles an hour, with gusts of 40 m.p.h.
While such weather is not uncommon at this time of year, it may rain on some Thanksgiving Day parades. And operations at some of the nation’s busiest airports could be affected by the rain moving through the region, said Dean Iovino, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mount Holly, N.J.
Mihir Zaveri contributed rep
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