US: 5,700 Flights Cancelled Due to Fierce Winter Storms in Christmas

Airline cancelled 5,700 flights after a massive winter storm halted airport operations around the United States and frustrated tens of thousands of Christmas holiday travelers.

That followed around 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, while more than 1,000 flights were already canceled for Saturday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

A wild winter storm continued to envelop much of the US, bringing blinding blizzards, freezing rain, flooding, and life-threatening cold that created mayhem for people travelling for the Christmas holiday.

The storm was unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.

Nearly 60% of the American population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted well below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

Freezing rain coated much of the Pacific Northwest in a layer of ice, while people in the northeast faced the threat of coastal and inland flooding.

The frigid temperatures and gusty winds were expected to produce “dangerously cold wind chills across much of the central and eastern US this holiday weekend”, the weather service said, adding that conditions “will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travellers that become stranded.”

“In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes,” it noted.