Grigory Broverman, a member of the Cryophile winter swimmers club, pours a bucket of cold water over his 9-year-old daughter Liza during a celebration of Polar Bear Day at the Royev Ruchey zoo, with the air temperature at about minus 5 degrees Celsius, in
A winter storm moving across the Central Plains toward the Great Lakes is disrupting air travel in Chicago and other metropolitan areas on the busiest travel day of the year.
The storm will have blizzard-like conditions, bringing gusty winds and 6 to 10 inches of snow between Kansas City and Chicago, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. One blessing: The storm is expected to be brief.
"This is going to be not a prolonged event,” Oravec said. "By tomorrow morning, conditions will definitely be better in Chicago. Conditions in Kansas City should improve by sunset.”
That may be little comfort for travelers trying to find their way home after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. More than 550 flights were canceled in the U.S. by about 1 p.m. New York time on Sunday, according to tracking service Flightaware.com.
The cancellations including more than 200 flights that were scheduled to arrive at Chicago’s two major airports or in Kansas City. Southwest Airlines, which operates a hub out of Chicago’s Midway airport, was the hardest-hit carrier as of midday, with 160 canceled flights and 300 delayed, according to Flightaware.com.
United Airlines had issued a travel waiver ahead of the storm, eliminating change fees for people who had planned to travel from Nov. 24-26. United has only seen about 50 cancellations so far in Chicago but expects that total to rise, spokeswoman Kimberly Gibbs said. American Airlines and JetBlue have also issued some waivers related to the storm.
The situation isn’t much better for those who are driving: Interstate 80 is closed in eastern Nebraska because of multiple accidents related to the snow, the Associated Press reported.
