Boxing Day Flight Cancellations Top 1,400 as Winter Storm Travel Chaos Continues

An American Airlines plane is de-iced as high winds whip around 7.5 inches of new snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Dec. 22, 2022. David Joles/Star Tribune via AP

Disruptions to Christmas Day travel continued into the early morning of Dec. 26, with Boxing Day flight cancellations topping 1,400 as much of the United States reels from the impact of a powerful winter storm.

By 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 26 there were 1,418 flight cancellations within, into, or out of the United States, and 736 delays, according to FlightAware data.

Christmas Day, typically a light day for travel, saw a total of 3,182 canceled flights within, into, or out of the United States, while delays totaled a whopping 6,924.

At least 38 people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have been left without power this Christmas as Storm Elliott—termed a “once in a generation” storm by some forecasters—swept through much of the United States and parts of Canada, bringing with it freezing temperatures, flash floods, and blizzards.

The storm is expected to moderate slowly, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), with much of the eastern part of the country forecast to remain in “deep freeze” through Boxing Day.

“Arctic air enveloping much of the eastern half of the U.S. will be slow to moderate,” states the latest NWS weather advisory, issued just before 3 a.m. New York time on Dec. 26. “Much of the eastern U.S. will remain in a deep freeze through Monday before a moderating trend sets in on Tuesday.”

While the eastern part of the country has been gripped by an unusually cold snap, much of the western United States will be milder than the seasonal average over the next few days.

A fast-moving low pressure system will deliver snow across the Northern Plains to the Midwest through Dec. 26, while lake-effect snows downwind from the Great Lakes will become less intense over time.

The West Coast is expected to face increasingly stormy weather, according to the NWS, as the fast-moving low pressure system rolls in. By Tuesday, a much stronger low pressure system is forecast for the Pacific Northwest and into California, bringing an “even more potent surge of moisture” along with a risk of flash flooding.

Ahead of the holiday weekend, over 240 million people within the United States, or around 73 percent of the population, were under some kind of winter weather advisory or warning. This included 181 million people under wind chill warnings or advisories, over 11 million for blizzard warnings, 58 million for winter storm warnings, and over 500,000 for ice storm warnings.

By Monday, as the weather moderated in parts of the country, some regions cancelled winter storm warnings, including in Buffalo, where at least 17 people died amid the cold snap.

Gamaliel Vega tries to dig out his car on Lafayette Avenue after he got stuck in a snowdrift about a block from home while trying to help rescue his cousin, who had lost power and heat with a baby at home across town during a blizzard in Buffalo, N.Y., on Dec. 24, 2022. Derek Gee/The Buffalo News via AP

Buffalo saw hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions that paralyzed emergency response efforts.

Freezing conditions and power outages left many Buffalonians scrambling to get somewhere warm amid what New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the longest sustained blizzard conditions ever in the city.

But by Monday morning, the winter storm warning had been cancelled for Northern Erie and Southern Erie, including the cities of Buffalo, Orchard Park, and Springville, though a winter weather advisory remains in effect there until 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute,” the NWS said of Erie County, New York, where up to 12 more inches of snow is expected.

A driving ban was imposed in Erie County amid icy conditions on the road, with an update as of 7 a.m. on Monday showing some communities no longer under the ban but remaining under a driving advisory.

A winter storm warning remains in effect until Tuesday 1 p.m. for Jefferson and Lewis counties in New York, where additional snow accumulations of up to two feet are expected and wind gusts as high as 35 mph are forecast.