US: Storm adds uncertainty to vacation travel

Illness or inflation don’t stop Americans from hitting the highways or going to the airports. But a huge winter storm could upset their plans.

Forecasters are predicting an onslaught of snow, ice, flooding and even tornadoes Thursday through Saturday across a wide swath of the country, from the Central Plains and Midwest to the Atlantic coast. This will be followed by a cold wave from the Arctic. Christmas weekend could be the coldest in decades.

The icy wave that hit the north Pacific coast Tuesday morning will move into the Rockies, then freeze the plains and blanket the central-north with a deep blanket of snow, forecasters said. By Friday, the Arctic front is expected to reach as far south as Florida.

Authorities across the country fear the possibility of power outages and are warning people to take precautions to protect the elderly, the homeless and livestock, and if possible, postpone travel.

For the extreme north of the United States, wind chills near 57 below zero Celsius (70 below zero Fahrenheit) are forecast, enough to cause frostbite on exposed skin in a matter of minutes. The heaviest snowfall is forecast in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and wind chill will be strongest in the central part of the country, according to the National Weather Service.

Travelers got their first glimpse of the trouble Tuesday in Seattle, where a winter storm forced the cancellation of at least 192 flights, according to the FlightAware tracking service. The Greyhound bus company canceled services between Seattle and Spokane.

Airlines offered travelers the ability to change flights to avoid bad weather. Delta, American, United and Southwest have waived flight change fees at potentially affected airports.