“I opened its door and the wind caught me, and I flew away”: rising air in the US Arctic is causing northerners to lose their footing

High winds are expected to add to the cold, with low temperatures dropping below freezing as far south as the Florida Panhandle, the National Weather Service said.

The severe storm hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes this week with significantly colder air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain, making travel perilous. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria for a bomb cyclonea system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops.

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

“Just give yourself plenty of extra time and that way, even if things go well, you don’t need to be stressed,” she said, “and you’re prepared in case things don’t go as well.”

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

As the storm moves toward Canada, the frigid air trailing it will spread across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country, the National Weather Service said, feeding into the national weather system. lake effect “snow machine” in areas downwind of the Great Lakes.

Parts of western and upstate New York received at least a foot of snow Monday and totals could reach up to 36 inches this week, forecasters said. High winds Monday, including a gust of 80 mph in Buffalo, New York, toppled trees and power cables across the region, the weather service said.

“At this stage the worst appears to be over and we expect conditions to improve particularly later today,” said weather service meteorologist Andrew Orrison.

Videos on social media show people struggling to walk in windy conditions and a downtown Buffalo waterway clogged with tree branches and other debris from a wind surge from Lake Erie.

Just south of Buffalo in Lackawanna, Diane Miller was filmed being thrown off the front porch of her daughter’s home and landing in some bushes. She was not seriously injured.

“I opened his door and the wind caught me and I flew out,” Miller told WKBW-TV.

Whiteout conditions were still possible in some areas, forecasters said, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents in affected areas to avoid unnecessary travel.

High winds on Lake Erie had sent water rising toward the eastern end of the basin near Buffalo while lowering the water on Michigan’s west side, exposing the normally submerged lake bed and even the wreckage of a car and snowmobile.

Kevin Aldrich, 33, a maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he had never seen the lake recede so much and was surprised Monday to spot remains of piers dating to the 1830s. He posted photos on social media of wooden pilings protruding several feet from the mud.

“Where they are, they would probably be 12 feet deep,” or 3.6 meters, he said. “We can usually drive our boat on it.”

Dangerous wind chills in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota plunged to minus 30 F (minus 34 C) on Monday. And in northeastern West Virginia, rare winds near 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 isolated gusts exceeding 70 mph brought down trees in parts of Southern California where recent storms had saturated the ground. Downed power lines forced the closure of a highway north of Los Angeles for several hours on Monday. Wind advisories had expired in the evening, but windy conditions were expected through Saturday, along with thunderstorms.

Rain on New Year’s Day could potentially soak the Pasadena 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; and Susan Haigh of Norwich, Connecticut, contributed.