Northern USA and Canada, From 21 to 26 December, 2022 saw a huge extratropical storm causing high speed winds, winter storms, blizzards and extreme temperature drop causing deaths of 80 people in USA and Canada and also caused cancellation of more than 10,000 flights, road and rail closures, power failure causing millions of people without electricity.
USA and Canada Meteorological history
On 21 December 2022, storm gradually began to form over the Northern part of Great Plains in Central United States. It began to strengthen on next day and The Weather Channel (USA) predicted that storm will form into a bomb cyclone. Blizzard conditions formed in areas of Northern Iowa, Southern Minnesota and South-Western Wisconsin. Visibility was less than 0.25 Miles (400 meters) and wind speeds were more than 64 Km/h (40 miles per hour).
As Storm moved from U.S State of Indiana into Canadian Province of Ontario between afternoons of 23 and 24th of Dec, pressure of storm dropped to 35mm which created a large range wind field and extremely cold winds. This created whiteouts, extreme cold weather, temperature drop, blizzard conditions in major cities across Rust belt and North-Eastern United States and Canada. Buffalo experienced worst storms up to 127 km/h (79 Miles per hour) and snow fall up to 49 inches over 3 days ending in 27 Dec, 2022.
USA and Canada Government response
President Joe Biden asked Americans to take this storm extremely serious. On 21 Dec Georgia declared state of emergency followed by South Dakota, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Christmas celebrations were also canceled by the people.
Canada also declared state of emergency and blizzard warning in Southern Ontario excluding Toronto Metropolitan area.
Causalities and losses
A total no of 89 people were killed by storm. Most of the deaths were caused by cardiac arrest, carbon monoxide poisoning, car crash and electric shock. Most of the died people were from New York State especially Buffalo-Niagara region. This storm surpassed 1977 blizzard in causalities.
Because of storm millions of people across the United States and Canada suffered power outages. More than 10,000 flights were cancelled across the United States and Canada. Many trains were also suspended across the country and Canada. Roads, public transport in different cities were also closed due to frozen road conditions.
