Over 4,000 flights have been canceled countrywide amid the holiday travel rush as a result of a severe winter storm.
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, 4,700 flights into, into, or out of the United States were canceled on Friday as of 3 p.m. ET.
With over 250 flights canceled, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport experienced the most cancellations, while Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport experienced over 240 cancellations. Other significant airports that were negatively impacted included Boston’s Logan International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Portland International Airport, and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York, meanwhile, had to close entirely. “The Buffalo Airport Airfield has closed due to hazardous weather conditions,” the official Twitter account for the airport said.
Even President Biden chimed in about the storm. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” he said on Thursday. “This is serious stuff.”
According to meteorologists, a bomb cyclone develops when the air pressure rapidly decreases during a large storm, causing snow and strong winds.