A deadly winter-like storm already blamed for eight deaths continued its trek east through the Southwest on Sunday, disrupting hundreds of flights in a possible preview of Thanksgiving travel hassles.
Meanwhile, an arctic air mass brought freezing temperatures to much of the Northeast and the upper Midwest in what the National Weather Service called the coldest weather of the season.
The wintry system slushed through New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas on Sunday, dumping heavy snow over several areas in New Mexico and sleet that forced the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to "pre-cancel" about 300 flights.
"This is more of a January, February-type weather event," National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Cain told the Los Angeles Times, adding, "It's not rare, but it's not very common either."Fortunately for Texans, Cain said, temperatures have remained above freezing as the area braces for a band of icy weather early Monday. "By Thursday, we should have quite a bit of sunshine," he said. "Should be no problem for people going to grandma's house for Thanksgiving."
The same can't be said for the East Coast, where Sunday's temperatures could "even be considered cold by January standards," the weather service said.
With more than 43 million Americans expected to travel more than 50 miles for Thanksgiving, according to AAA, meteorologists expect the East Coast to get socked with rain and wintry storms on Wednesday -- the busiest day of Thanksgiving travel.
"Substantial snow will unfold from the spine of the Appalachians to the St. Lawrence Valley and far northern New England," AccuWeather senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said in a forecast for Wednesday, adding that the storm's timing could not be worse.
Travel conditions were expected to be good for the rest of the country, according to AccuWeather.
Three deaths were previously reported in storms that battered parts of California on Saturday.
Two people in Oakland died Thursday in storm-related incidents; one man was apparently electrocuted when he was hit by a falling power line and tree branches, and a motorist died after crashing into a tree while trying to avoid debris. Also in Northern California, a woman was killed when a tree fell on her car.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that five more people died because of the storm: one in New Mexico, one in Arizona and three in Texas.
One record-setting or record scraping weather event after another. Each one is downplayed as uncommon, but not unheard of. The reality is that there are too many of them to be random noise in a signal. The signal itself has escalated in base intensity. A random spike in intensity of a weather event rides on TOP of the intensified signal. Buckle up.