At least 250 million people in the United States and Canada have been affected by a fierce winter storm, killing 18 people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, media reports said.
The bomb cyclone storm, triggered by low atmospheric pressure, extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec.
It brought blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes on the US-Canada border and left more than 1.5 million people in the dark and thousands of flights have been cancelled since Thursday.
Have you ever driven in a snowstorm? Well, buckle up!#snow #blizzard #winter #winterstorm #wawx #seattlesnow #cascades pic.twitter.com/xmqavUSHy2
Weather Radar USA (@WeatherRadar_US) December 21, 2022
Near white-out conditions have been reported in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, where the US National Weather Service (NWS) reported zero mile visibility, BBC reported
In Canada, Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast, with power cut to hundreds of thousands, the report stated.
Much of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.
WInter storm LIVE blog update:
Hurricane-like #blizzard hurling in #Buffalo
5,000 flights canceled, 7,800 delayed across US
Power outages top 1.375 million
Canada records lowest December temperature since 1980https://t.co/e8MYJ8mrmN pic.twitter.com/9tJTaV7eEb
AccuWeather (@accuweather) December 24, 2022
Power systems across the US were under strain due to rising demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines, Al Jazeera reported.
But many electric companies continued to ask people to conserve energy by not running large appliances and turning off unneeded lights.
