Winter storms cancel 1,500 US flights as snow and floods disrupt holiday travel

Storms disrupt peak US holiday travel

Airlines grounded about 1,500 flights across the United States on Friday as severe winter weather disrupted peak holiday travel, with heavy snowfall forecast for parts of the Midwest and the northeast.

More than 40 million people were under winter storm warnings or weather advisories a day after Christmas, while an additional 30 million faced flood or storm alerts in California, where an atmospheric river dumped intense rainfall.

New York City was preparing for as much as 10 inches (25 centimetres) of snow overnight — its heaviest snowfall in four years. Temperatures were expected to fall further and stay cold into the weekend as an Arctic blast moved south from Canada.

As of 4:00 pm US Eastern time (2100 GMT), at least 1,490 flights had been cancelled and more than 5,900 delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking website.

The National Weather Service said snowfall from the upper Great Lakes region was forecast to push into the US northeast. “Difficult travel conditions are ongoing for the area and those traveling from the holiday should exercise caution if you have to be on the road,” it warned.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said a winter storm warning was in place and that city crews had been deployed to clear roads. Airports in New York and Chicago ranked among the most affected nationwide on FlightAware’s “Misery Map,” which monitors flight delays and cancellations.

New York's three area airports have accounted for 850 flight cancelations, according to the website.

Weather warnings were also issued for the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as parts of Michigan, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Meanwhile California, on the US West coast, endured heavy rain this week but the NWS forecast it will begin drying out over the weekend.

The fierce weather and related flooding forced the Santa Barbara Airport northwest of Los Angeles to close, but by Friday morning, after crews spent all night clearing water from runways, authorities announced it had reopened.

(With AFP inputs)