Arctic blast 2024: Over 9,000 flights to and from US cancelled and delayed as winter storm brings heavy snow

There have been more than 9,000 flight delays and cancellations in and out of the US as of Monday (15 January) as Arctic cold conditions continue across the country. Temperatures in parts of the country have dropped to as low as -60C and experts are warning Americans to stay inside due to the threat of frostbite.

Over 100 million Americans are living under wind chill warnings and the National Weather Service (NWS) has warned that “another Arctic blast” will come later in the week. According to FlightAware there were over 9,100 flight delays and cancellations within, into or out of the U.S. just after 4pm Eastern Time on Monday.

Two Texas airports, Houston Bush and Dallas-Fort Worth, had the most flights cancelled as of Monday evening followed by Chicago O’Hare and Denver International Airport, which both saw more than 135 cancellations both inbound and outbound. Alaska Airlines cancelled 166 flights on Monday and United cancelled 349 flights, according to FlightAware.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines cancelling flights will be a bigger hit to the airlines after the incident on 5 January which saw a door plug blow out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet shortly after take off. The fleet of planes have been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for safety checks. 

The cold weather, ice and snow in the US will lead to thousands of cancellations this week. Ice and snow are dangerous for planes as ice can stick to and “seriously hamper the function of” wings, control surfaces, propellers and and can make it more difficult to land and take off, according to the NWS, and the FAA reports that ice can make planes “stall at much higher speeds and lower angles of attack than normal.”

The NWS predicts that temperatures will likely be the coldest in the Plains states. Wind chills could hit -30C in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska and -50C in Montana and the Dakotas before warming up slightly around Wednesday (17 January). However it warns temperatures will drop again in the Midwest and Deep South by Friday (19 January). 

On Monday the NWS said that most of the lower 48 states can expect cold temperatures and “wintry weather” throughout Tuesday (16 January) before “another Arctic blast” comes later in the week. On Sunday (14 January) parts of Montana had temperatures near -60 degrees with wind chill, Illinois saw -40C with wind chill.