Snow and ice blanket southern Plains states
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Airlines have issued yet another round of travel waivers ahead of new winter storms - but this time, they're not for the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast. They're for the South and Midwest.
A winter storm began dropping snow and ice and sent temperatures plunging across the southern Plains over the weekend, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after conditions canceled flights and impacted traffic across large swaths of the U.S.
"This impressive onslaught of wicked wintry weather across much of the Lower 48 is due to the combination of strong Arctic high pressure supplying sub-freezing temperatures and an active storm track escorting waves of precipitation from coast-to-coast," the National Weather Service explained in its alert.
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It predicted between 6-12 inches of snow for a wide swath of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions. Areas south and north of the snow band were expected to see freezing rain and heavy ice, leading to dangerous travel conditions and power outages.
Officials in Houston warned people to prepare for outages and hazardous roads - conditions similar to what residents might see in the wake of a Category 5 hurricane. The ice there contributed to nearly 120 crashes, including a 10-car pileup on I-45, were reported Sunday, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña tweeted.
© Sue Ogrocki/APA snowplow works to clear an intersection in Oklahoma City Sunday. Snow and ice blanketed large swaths of the U.S., prompting canceled flights, making driving perilous and reaching into areas as far south as Texas' Gulf Coast.
As of 10 a.m. EST, FlightAware had reported more than 3,000 canceled flights across the country for Monday and nearly 600 delays. Nearly 1,000 cancellations are predicted for Tuesday. Houston's George Bush Intercontinental and Dallas-Fort Worth International led the global list of airports with the most cancellations and Dallas-based Southwest had the most cancellations of any carrier.
Southwest is one of six airlines that have issued weather waivers to prevent passengers and planes from becoming stranded. The destinations covered, travel dates and other fine print vary by airline and are likely to change with the storms' projected path and severity.
American Airlines
Dates covered: Feb. 15-17
Destinations covered: 21, including Dallas, Houston and Austin in Texas and Oklahoma City and Tulsa in Oklahoma
Details: https://aa.com/i18n/travel-info/travel-alerts.jsp
Delta Air Lines
Dates covered: Feb. 15
Destinations covered: 16, including major Texas and Oklahoma airports as well as New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport in Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas
Details: https://delta.com/us/en/advisories/weather-alerts/southern-and-central-plains-winter-weather
Frontier Airlines
Dates covered: Feb. 15
Destinations covered: 10, including Denver and Colorado Springs as well as the major airports in Texas and Louisiana
Details: https://flyfrontier.com/alert/?mobile=true
JetBlue Airways
Dates covered: Feb. 15
Destinations covered: Austin, Dallas and Houston
Details: https://jetblue.com/travel-alerts
Southwest Airlines
Dates covered: Feb. 15
Destinations covered: 22, including most major Texas and Oklahoma airports as well as Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky
Details: https://southwest.com/html/advisories/swa_travel_advisory_20211121613166659852.html
United Airlines
Dates covered: Feb. 15-16
Destinations covered: United has issued four different waivers. The first covers Denver travel for Monday only. The second covers travel on Monday and Tuesday for 24 destinations throughout Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana as well as western Pennsylvania and New York. The third covers travel in and out of Houston for Monday. The fourth covers Monday travel out of 32 different cities, including most of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Details: https://united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/notices.html
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 3,000+ flights canceled Monday as winter storm pounds southern US with snow and ice