12/23/2022
It’s the the same system that already has been blamed for three deaths and has produced temperatures so cold that a Montana National Weather Service office said one of its thermometers had stopped working. The Elk Park, Montana, temperature sensor hit its lowest temperature: minus 50 degrees, the weather service office said on Thursday.
Over 175 million people, more than half the nation’s population, have been warned about dangerous wind chills in the days leading up to Christmas, according to Thursday night weather service data that tracks wind chill warnings and advisories. Governors across the country also have declared states of emergencies in response to the severe weather.
A pedestrian makes their way through the wind and snow across West Wisconsin Avenue at North 6th Street in Milwaukee on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. A winter storm was expected to dump several inches of snow on the area followed by high winds and temperatures in the single digits.
Numerous states have reported significant, record breaking temperature plunges with some areas plummeting 50 degrees. Huge swaths of the nation will see minimum wind chill temperatures in the negative double digits in the coming days, according to the weather service.
“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” said President Joe Biden after a briefing from federal officials Thursday. “This is serious stuff.” On Thursday, the cold front was moving through the central U.S. toward the east, wreaking havoc on holiday travel plans as thousands of flights were canceled.
A bomb cyclone was predicted to develop late Thursday into Friday near the Great Lakes, which is expected to worsen blizzard conditions.
Numerous Texas power outages reported
In Texas, more than 77,000 people were without power Friday morning.
CenterPoint Energy reported the most outages across the state. As of 6:45 a.m. CT, more than 21,000 customers were in the dark.
The energy company said it would work to restore service as soon as possible.
Just over 20,000 Oncor customers were impacted by the blast, a majority of them in Dallas. The power company wrote on its website that thousands of electrical facilities, including stations and main feeder lines, underwent thorough air and ground inspections Thursday to prepare for high demand and cold temperatures.
“Our crews are ready to respond and will work around the clock to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible – even on holidays,” the power company wrote.
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