Major winter storm kills at least 30

(Washington) The death toll from bad weather in the United States climbed Tuesday to 30 deaths, including seven in a plane crash that occurred Sunday evening, while millions of Americans face a wave of polar cold which left more than 530,000 homes without electricity Tuesday morning.

Temperatures are expected to drop further in the coming days under the action of an arctic air mass, particularly in regions in the north of the country, where the feeling could reach -45.

Heavy snowfall – more than 30 centimeters in around twenty US states – led to power outages.

According to the specialist site poweroutage.us, a little more than 530,000 customers were still without power Tuesday morning, mainly in the southern United States, in Mississippi and Tennessee, where the weight of the ice brought down power lines.

More than 175,000 people are affected in Tennessee and more than 140,000 in Mississippi. Nearly 100,000 customers are without power in Louisiana.

“The power outages could last for several more days as authorities struggle to recover (from the storm). Most of these regions have neither the means nor the necessary resources to clear up after such events, because they are not used to it,” meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP.

Dave Radell, a New York-based meteorologist, told AFP that the snow that fell in the storm was “very dry” and “powdery”, meaning the wind can easily disperse it, hampering efforts to clear roads and reducing visibility.

Considered by some specialists as one of the worst winter episodes in recent decades in the United States, the storm is accompanied by ice accumulations with potentially “catastrophic” consequences, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Polar vortex

These extreme conditions led to the death of at least 30 people, according to a count carried out by AFP using local American media.

In Texas, authorities have confirmed the death of a 16-year-old girl killed in a sledding accident. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and one in Iowa during a collision.

Eight people were found dead in New York, and an investigation was launched to determine the causes.

Seven of the eight passengers on a plane that crashed on takeoff during a snowstorm in Maine (Northeast) on Sunday evening have died, the FAA, the air transport regulator, said.

A state of emergency was declared in around twenty states as well as in the capital, Washington, and means of transport were severely disrupted.

Several large airports, in Washington, Philadelphia and New York, were almost at a standstill, while more than 22,000 flights have been canceled since Saturday and thousands more have been delayed, according to the FlightAware website.

The storm is linked to a deformation of the polar vortex, an air mass usually circulating above the North Pole, but which has stretched towards the south.

Scientists believe that the increasing frequency of these vortex disruptions could be linked to climate change, although the debate is not settled and natural variability also plays a role.

A self-confessed climate skeptic, Donald Trump nevertheless used the storm as an excuse to put the issue back on the table on his Truth Social platform: “Could the environmental insurgents please explain to me: what happened to global warming? » he wrote.