More than 80 million people across southern US states were on alert on Friday as a powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward.
Some governors have declared a state of emergency as the weather forced school closures across the region and unleashed havoc for traffic.
The Arkansas governor, Sarah Sanders, mobilized the national guard to help stranded motorists. School was canceled for millions of children across a wide tract of southern states from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina, while areas as far north as Delaware were experiencing or preparing for dangerous conditions.
Some of the heaviest snowfall was expected on Friday across northern Arkansas and much of Tennessee, with totals in some parts of those states ranging from 6 to 9in, according to the National Weather Service.
Farther south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain has made travel treacherous.
The storm dumped as much as 7in in some spots in central Oklahoma and northern Texas before pushing into Arkansas. Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle had its biggest snowfall in 10 years, ABC’s Good Morning America reported.
Snow that began falling in the metro Atlanta area before dawn led to hundreds of flights being cancelled and hundreds more delayed at Atlanta’s airport, according to the flight tracking software FlightAware. Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for Georgia. Texas was hit with the most flight cancellations and delays while North Carolina and Tennessee air travelers were also affected.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the north pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the US, Europe and Asia, especially as the climate crisis has worsened. Climate science and meteorological experts have reported that such events are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of global heating, as normal climate patterns break down.
The cold snap coincided with record January wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area.
Tennessee also faced a state of emergency. Heavy, wet snow has been steadily falling since late Thursday in Memphis, where schools were closed for more than 100,000 children on Friday.
Tours at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s former home turned museum, were canceled on Friday, a spokeswoman said.
North Carolina has declared a state of emergency and the approaching storm prompted the cancellation of a public outdoor inauguration ceremony for the incoming governor, Josh Stein, and other statewide elected officials in Raleigh on Saturday.
Meanwhile in Virginia, the state capital, Richmond, was under a boil-water advisory as officials worked to restore the water reservoir system, which was shut down on Monday after a storm caused a power outage.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
