Winter Weather and Travel

A rapidly intensifying "bomb" cyclone raced from the Plains into the Great Lakes and Northeast, snarling holiday travel with thousands of flight delays and cancellations, prompting emergency declarations in New York and New Jersey, interstate closures and multi‑vehicle crashes, and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands. Behind the storm a surge of Arctic air drove dangerous wind chills as low as −30°F to −35°F across the Midwest and much of the East just before New Year’s, while Lake Erie and Ontario bands produced localized lake‑effect blizzards dumping 1–3+ feet of snow with gusts to 70–75 mph and widespread blizzard conditions.