‘I opened her door and the wind caught me, and I went flying’: The U.S. Arctic air surge is sweeping northerners off their feet

Gusty winds are expected to make the weather even colder, with low temperatures falling below freezing as far south as the Florida panhandle, the National Weather Service said.

The wild storm hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes this week with frigid air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain, making for treacherous travel. Meteorologists said the hurricane strengthened quickly enough to meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens quickly as pressure drops.

Christine Schultz, who was returning to her home in Alaska, said it took four hours to get to the Minneapolis airport on Tuesday.

“Just give yourself a lot of extra time, that way, even if things go smoothly, you don’t have to feel stressed, and you’ll be prepared in case things don’t go smoothly,” she said.

Nationwide, more than 115,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning, about a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us.

As the storm moves into Canada, the frigid air behind it will spread across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country, turning on a lake-effect “snow machine” in areas downwind of the Great Lakes, the National Weather Service said.

Some areas in western and upstate New York saw a foot or more of snow fall on Monday and could total up to 3 feet (91 cm) this week, meteorologists said. Strong winds on Monday, including a gust of 81 mph (130 kph) in Buffalo, New York, downed trees and wires across the area, the weather service said.

Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “At this stage, the worst appears to be over, and we expect conditions to improve, especially later today.”

Videos posted on social media show people struggling to walk in windy conditions and a downtown Buffalo waterway blocked by tree branches and other debris caused by wind gusts from Lake Erie.

South Buffalo in Lackawanna, Diane Miller was captured on video bursting down the front steps of her daughter’s home and landing in some bushes. She was not seriously injured.

“She opened her door and the wind caught me, and I went flying,” Miller told WKBW-TV.

Meteorologists said whiteout conditions were still possible in some areas, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned people in affected areas to avoid non-essential travel.

High winds on Lake Erie sent waters rising toward the eastern end of the basin near Buffalo, while lowering the waters on the western side in Michigan to reveal the normally submerged lake floor — even the wreckage of a car and a snowmobile.

Kevin Aldrich, 33, a maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he had never seen the lake recede this much before, and was surprised Monday when he discovered the remains of piers dating back to the 1830s. He posted photos on social media of wooden supports rising several feet out of the mud.

“Those sites are probably typically 12 feet deep,” or 3.6 metres, he said. “We can usually drive our boat over them.”

Dangerous temperatures across North Dakota and Minnesota dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) on Monday. In northeastern West Virginia, rare winds approaching hurricane force were recorded on a mountain near Dolly Sods, according to the National Weather Service.

On the West Coast, strong Santa Ana winds with gusts of up to 70 mph (112 kph) toppled trees in parts of Southern California as recent storms saturated the soil. Downed power lines closed a highway north of Los Angeles for several hours Monday. The wind warnings ended by the evening, but thunderstorms are expected through Saturday, along with thunderstorms.

Rain on New Year’s Day will likely flood Pasadena’s Rose Parade for the first time in about two decades.

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Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Leah Willingham in Concord, New Hampshire; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Susan Hay in Norwich, Connecticut, contributed.