An arctic blast gripped much of the United States on Saturday, causing power outages, flight cancellations and car wrecks as plummeting temperatures were predicted to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record in several cities from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Temperatures in Pittsburgh are expected to hit minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, surpassing the previous coldest-ever Christmas Eve high of 13 degrees Fahrenheit (-10.5 degrees Celsius) set in 1983, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. .
Cities in Georgia and South Carolina — Athens and Charleston — were similarly expected to record their coldest daytime Christmas Eve highs, while Washington, D.C., was expected to experience its coldest December 24 since 1989.
The flurry of Christmas temperature records was predicted as a US deep freeze, sharpened by dangerous chills, continued to envelop much of the eastern two-thirds of the country over the holiday weekend.
The freeze has already caused deadly car collisions across the country, with CNN reporting at least 14 deaths from weather-related accidents.
The arctic cold combined with a “cyclone bomb” of heavy snow and howling winds that swept Friday from the Great Lakes region and into the Upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys wreaked havoc on power systems, roads and commercial air traffic.
Francisco Erazo uses his snow blower to clear snow in Michigan.Credit:
Extreme winter weather was responsible for at least five deaths on Friday.
Two motorists were killed and numerous others injured in a 50-vehicle pileup that closed the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near Toledo, forcing stranded motorists to be evacuated by bus to avoid freezing in their cars, officials said . .
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