Storm travel hell erupts with more than 5,000 flights pre-emptively canceled over weekend with thousands more to come – Live updates

Almost 5,000 flights scheduled for this weekend have already been canceled, according to data compiled by FlightAware.

A total of 2,677 flights were canceled on Saturday and an additional 2,596 on Sunday.

American Airlines canceled over 600 flights scheduled for Saturday, and Southwest canceled almost 500 on Sunday.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport remains the most heavily impacted for outgoing and incoming flights.

Thunder ice is a rare and dangerous phenomenon when thunderstorms occur alongside heavy freezing rain or sleet – and it’s in the forecast for some parts of the country this weekend.

‘THUNDER-ICE is likely coming to the Mississippi River Valley on Saturday night or early Sunday. This includes east Texas, northern Louisiana, eastern/southeast Arkansas, northwest Mississippi and western Tennessee,’ MyRadarWX’s Matthew Cappucci wrote on X.

‘Surface temperatures will be below freezing, allowing freezing rain and wintry precipitation. It might be in the mid-20s! But half a mile to a mile above the ground, 44 degrees.

‘That warmer air upstairs leads to some “instability,” or thunderstorm fuel, rooted at the mid-levels. So yes, thunder/lightning will be possible. I can’t even rule out some pea-sized hail with some of the thunder-ice and thunder-sleet storms.’

Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley declared a state of emergency due to the impending winter weather.

Amarillo is a city in the Texas Panhandle near the New Mexico border.

The declaration allows local government officials to request state and federal assistance if needed.

Watch below to see flurries begin to fall in Amarillo.

Thousands of flights at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport have been canceled or delayed to the winter weather.

The Houston Independent School District announced that all classes will be canceled on Monday.

‘Meteorologists are forecasting a significant risk of an ice storm beginning late Saturday, possibly through Sunday and into Monday morning, creating hazardous travel conditions for our students, staff, and families, combined with dangerously low temperatures,’ Superintendent Mike Miles said.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani opted to require public school children to attend class virtually instead of closing on Monday.

‘I have to apologize to the students that were hoping for a different answer,’ he said at Friday’s press conference.

‘I’m not going to contend that a snow day is not one of life’s rare joys. To be very clear and direct with New Yorkers, we are also bound by state law that requires 180 days of instruction and as previous administrations have added additional holidays into the school calendar, it leaves our school calendar without any flexibility.’

Crews in Houston, Texas, are treating the roadways ahead of winter storm Fern.

A winter storm watch is in effect in the area, and the city could experience freezing rain on Sunday.

As a historic winter storm creeps closer to wide swaths of the US, public officials are sounding the alarm about the potentially deadly consequences of not taking the weather event seriously.

Within minutes, being outdoors in freezing weather without proper gear can lead to frostbite, which can progress to hypothermia, a life-threatening condition. It is not merely ‘being cold.’ Hypothermia is a clinical, progressive drop in the body’s core temperature below 95 degrees Fahrenheit, a state where the body loses heat faster than it can produce it.

This process represents a failure of the body’s delicate thermoregulation system, which normally maintains our internal temperature within a narrow, life-sustaining range.

The National Weather Service has issued its first ice storm warning for the Greenville-Spartanburg Metro Area in South Carolina since December 15, 2005.

While the low temperature in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was 21 degrees below zero on Friday morning, the AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature hit 52 degrees below zero.

‘This is the cold Arctic air that’s making it possible for the precipitation to fall as freezing rain, sleet or snow to the south,’ Dr Reed Timmer, Extreme Meteorologist, said.

‘It’s starting to freeze my beard and nose hairs.’

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani encouraged residents to stay at home and watch reality TV during the weekend snow storm.

‘I want to encourage New Yorkers to do something that we don’t often have the luxury of doing, which is to take a breath and stay home,’ he said at a press briefing on Friday.

‘Watch the worst possible reality TV show you can find and take some time away from the roads.’