Storm blankets half of US in snow

Twelve people killed as storm disrupts flights, shuts schools and leaves drivers stranded
Cars stranded in snow in Chicago
A man walks between stranded cars on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive after a storm brought snow to nearly hafl the US. Photograph: John Gress/REUTERS

A storm has spread a shroud of white over nearly half the US, burying parts of the midwest under 60cm of snow and causing at least 12 deaths.

Tens of millions of people stayed home as winds turned snowflakes into face-stinging needles. Chicago had 51cm of snow, the third-largest recorded in the city. In New York's Central Park, pathways resembled skating rinks.

"A storm that produces a swath of 20-inch (50cm) snow is really something we'd see once every 50 years – maybe," a National Weather Service meteorologist, Thomas Spriggs ,said.

Across the storm's path, commuters struggled against snow drifts more than a metre deep in eerily silent streets, some of which had not seen a snow plough since the snow started a day earlier. Parkas and ski goggles became essential for getting to work.

Skies were beginning to clear by mid-afternoon over much of the country's midsection, but the storm promised to leave bitterly cold winds in its wake. Overnight temperatures in northern parts of the midwest were expected to fall as low as -20C, with wind chill bringing a further drop to -30C.


Airport operations slowed to a crawl across the US, with 13,000 flight cancellations this week. A post-Christmas blizzard caused about 10,000 cancellations.

In the north-east, thick ice caused several structures to collapse, including a petrol station canopy on Long Island and an aeroplane hangar near Boston. In some places, workers heard structures crack and narrowly escaped.

Half a dozen states had 30cm of snow that made roads treacherous and left hundreds of thousands of homes without power.

Chicago schools cancelled classes for a second day and the Lake Shore Drive expressway remained shut, nearly a day after drivers abandoned hundreds of snowbound vehicles. Three lanes of cars were stuck in snow drifts that stood as high as the windscreens. Bulldozers cleared the snow from around the cars, which were then pulled out by tow trucks. Some motorists were angry that crucial thoroughfare was not closed earlier.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were without power after freezing rain and ice brought down electrical lines. Rolling blackouts were implemented across Texas, due to high demand during a rare ice storm.

In Canada, about a quarter of the 1,200 scheduled flights at Toronto's international airport were cancelled and schools closed after heavy snow.

The storm was caused by cold air sweeping down from Canada and colliding with warm, moist air coming up from the south.

The contrasts were most dramatic in Texas. Temperatures were below freezing in one part of the state this week and 20C in another.

Louis Uccellini, director of the government's National Centres for Environmental Prediction, said the storm also drew strength from the La Niña condition, a periodic cooling of the surface temperatures of the tropical Pacific Ocean. La Niña and the El Niño warming can have a significant impact on weather around the world by changing the movement of winds and pressure systems.