Winter storm Elliott – latest: Driving ban lifted in Buffalo as blizzard deaths hit 38

Across the six New England states, almost 400,000 electric customers remained without power on Saturday morning, with some utilities warning it could be days before power is restored. In North Carolina, more than 415,000 customers were without power, according to poweroutage.us.

The emergency call for system-wide conservation from Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection advised residents to set thermostats lower than usual, to postpone use of major appliances like stoves and dishwashers and to turn off nonessential lights. Commercial and industrial power users have also been asked to cut back. Utility officials said simultaneous increased demand across its electric system came as some power plants are having difficulty operating in the extreme cold. They warned of rolling blackouts.

“It’ll be short-lived, we’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but it is a real possibility,” said Mike Bryson, PJM’s senior vice president for operations. It covers all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The power grid operator overseeing 13 states has urged consumers to conserve power as it issued a warning that rolling blackouts may become necessary.

PJM Interconnection serves 65 million residents in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“Conserving electricity as much as possible between the hours of 4 a.m. on December 24, 2022, and 10 a.m. on December 25, 2022, will help ensure adequate power supplies,” the company said in a statement.

“CPJM continues to carefully monitor the power supply conditions. It will do everything possible to keep power flowing in the region. If necessary, PJM may take additional steps, such as reducing voltage. PJM is coordinating efforts among generators, power suppliers and local utilities,” the company added.

Hell has literally frozen over as the Michigan town was struck by the winter storm that has killed at least 15 people across the US so far.

Temperatures dropped to -45 C in Montana on Friday and -23 C on Saturday in northern Minnesota.

The area west of Detroit, where the town of Hell is located, saw temperatures around -8 C on Saturday.

Emergency weather shelters in Portland, Oregon, called for volunteers amid high demand and staffing issues as a winter storm bringing snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures descended upon the area.

An unprecedented number of people are seeking shelter in a region where thousands live outside, and many staff members have been unable to make it to their shifts because of dangerous road conditions or illness, officials said.

Nearly 800 people slept at the city’s five emergency shelters on Thursday night, said Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, spokesperson for Multnomah County, which is home to Portland.

“The largest number of people that I’ve ever seen have come into shelter,” she said. “We are trying to get more support. We have the experts in charge, but this is for helping folks with meals, wheelchairs, getting them to the right spot.”

The shelters will remain open until Saturday.

An Arctic blast is sweeping the United States, impacting swathes of the country this holiday season with a miserable mix of dangerous cold, blinding snow squalls and flash freezing.

The powerful winter storm will produce widespread, disruptive and potentially crippling impacts across the central and eastern United States between now and Christmas Eve, the National Weather Service warned.

Forecasters are also warning of the potential for a “bomb cyclone” – but what does this mean?

The weather phenomenon is technically called bombogenesis and whether it occurs all depends on how quickly the pressure drops.

As the jet stream pushes very cold air down from the Arctic and into the US, this mass of frigid air bumps up against the warmer air ahead of it.

And if the atmospheric pressure falls rapidly over a period of 24 hours, it can become a serious storm otherwise known as a “bomb cyclone”. They typically occur over water due to the high levels of warmth and moisture so it will be a rare event if a bomb cyclone happens over land.

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Officials in Jackson, Mississippi, said the city’s water system, which partially collapsed in late August, was experiencing “fluctuating” pressure on Saturday afternoon amid frigid temperatures.

“Both of our water plants are functioning, so crews are now working to determine what is causing the fluctuation,” Melissa Payne, a city spokesperson, said in a news release. “As crews are working to stabilize things, frigid temperatures are hampering their efforts.”

Some residents in Mississippi’s capital city may temporarily experience low water pressure, officials warned. Leading up to the “arctic blast” that brought dangerously cold air to Jackson, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba warned that the city’s the water distribution system remained a “huge vulnerability.”

“We are in no position to promise that sustained arctic temperatures won’t impact the water system and other infrastructure,” Lumumba said at a Monday news conference. “We are going to prepare for the worst, but pray for the best.”

The potential for further disruptions to Jackson’s water system comes just months after the city of about 150,000 residents lost water in late August.

The water system fell into crisis after flooding exacerbated longstanding problems in one of two water treatment plants. Most of Jackson lost running water for several days, and people had to wait in lines for water to drink, cook, bathe and flush toilets.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

It all started farther north, as frigid air collected over the snow-covered ground in the Arctic, Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist in the Atlanta area, said.

Then the jet stream — wobbling air currents in the middle and upper parts of the atmosphere — began pushing this cold pool down into the U.S.

As this arctic air is pushed into the warmer, moister air ahead of it, the system can quickly develop into serious weather — including what’s known as a “bomb cyclone,” a fast-developing storm in which atmospheric pressure falls very quickly over 24 hours.

These severe weather events usually form over bodies of water, which have lots of warmth and moisture to feed the storm, Maue said. But with the huge amount of cold air coming through, we could see a rare bomb cyclone forming over land.

IS THIS NORMAL?

The storm is definitely a strong one, but “not unheard of for the winter seasons,” Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said.

It’s pretty normal to have cold air build up in the winter. This week, though, shifts in the jet stream have pushed the air more to the southeast than usual, Oravec said — sweeping the freeze across the country and making storm conditions more intense.

The U.S. probably won’t reach record-breaking lows, like those seen in the cold snap of 1983 or the polar vortex of 2014, Maue said.

Still, “for most people alive, this will be a memorable, top-10 extreme cold event,” Maue said.

Four people are confirmed dead and a number of others have been injured in a 46-vehicle pile-up during Winter Storm Elliott.

The deadly crash happened in whiteout conditions on Friday afternoon in the eastbound lane of Ohio Turnpike I-75 in Erie County, according to highway patrol.

Pictures of the massive crash showed semi-trucks with crumpled front ends and trucks stacked up on the roofs of mangled cars.

None of the victims have been identified. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued a statement on Friday offering his condolences to the victims’ families. Governor DeWine and other public officials are pleading with the public to rethink travel plans.

“The road conditions continue to be very dangerous across the state, with white outs and extremely cold temperatures continuing. Please continue to remain home if at all possible and be vigilant with these extremely dangerous road conditions,” he wrote.

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