“Travel Chaos Unleashed: How a Winter Storm Disrupted Flights and Amtrak Across the U.S.”

A winter storm that is sweeping through a large part of the U.S. is creating travel disruptions, with many flights either canceled or postponed on Monday morning. Amtrak has also suspended several routes along the East coast and Mid-Atlantic states. 

As of Monday morning, approximately 34 million Americans are under winter storm alerts that extend from Illinois to the Mid-Atlantic states, including New Jersey and Delaware. The storm, named Winter Storm Blair, is unleashing a mix of snow, ice, and dropping temperatures across the U.S., also causing chaos for motorists due to icy roads.

conditions and blizzard-like conditions.

Airlines scrapped nearly 1,500 flights within, to, or departing from the U.S. by 8 a.m. ET on Jan. 6, with an additional approximately 900 flights experiencing delays, as per data provided by flight-tracker FlightAware. Southwest Airlines led in cancellations, totaling around 360, followed closely by American Airlines and Republic, each with 176 cancellations, according to the data.

Meanwhile, Amtrak canceled numerous trains, indicating that the interruptions were “for the safety of Amtrak passengers and staff, due to anticipated winter weather.” The train service noted that while the Acela is running between Boston and Washington, D.C., it had canceled various other routes between Washington and New York, as well as among other mid-Atlantic areas.

The storm’s influence is affecting the Mid-Atlantic states on Monday, with a severe freeze anticipated as far south as Florida. Winter Storm Blair is predicted to drift offshore into the Atlantic on Tuesday.

Although the polar vortex of severely cold air typically remains confined around the North Pole, it occasionally escapes or extends down to the U.S., Europe, or Asia, leading to the extreme chill of Winter Storm Blair. A rapidly warming Arctic is partially blamed for the uptick in polar vortex stretching or wandering, research has indicated.

The Associated Press
contributed to this report.