A major snowstorm that was sweeping across the Midwest and beyond on Thursday left at least seven people dead, clogged highways and forced hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports already bracing for the holiday rush.

The deaths included a woman in Utah who died trying to walk for help after her car became stuck in the blizzard. Storm-related traffic deaths also were reported in Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Blizzard warnings were in effect in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, according to the National Weather Service. The Weather Channel reported that parts of 17 states are under winter weather advisories -- as far west as Washington state and as far east as Maine.

The southern edge of the storm system brought winds and damaged homes in Arkansas, the National Weather Service said. Alabama has confirmed that a tornado hit Mobile on Thursday morning, but the tornado's length and intensity were still being assessed. Tornado watches remained in place in Georgia and Florida.

The storm brought much-needed precipitation for drought-plagued regions but was bad news for holiday travelers. Most of the nation's big airlines responded to the storm's threat by enacting flexible rebooking policies for passengers scheduled to fly into the storm's path.

As of 5 p.m. ET Thursday, more than 1,000 flights had been canceled at airports across the Midwest, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats.com.

More than 600 flights were canceled at Chicago's two airports, O'Hare and Midway. Other flights at O'Hare were delayed between 30 and 90 minutes, the city's Department of Aviation reported at 3:30 p.m. CT. FlightAware reported inbound delays averaging 2½ hours because of high winds.

American Airlines announced that it was canceling flights scheduled to depart after 8 p.m. CT and that flights delayed earlier might leave after 8 p.m.

O'Hare is a major hub for both United and American, meaning the disruption could ripple out and affect fliers at other airports.

Event Time
2012-12-21 22:28:09 UTC
2012-12-22 09:28:09 UTC+11:00 at epicenter

Location
14.382°S 167.260°E depth=207.9km (129.2mi)

Nearby Cities
63km (39mi) SSW of Sola, Vanuatu
127km (79mi) N of Luganville, Vanuatu
387km (240mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
723km (449mi) N of We, New Caledonia
863km (536mi) N of Dumbea, New Caledonia

Technical Details

Temperatures of up to minus 45 degrees Celsius in the Altai region in southeast Siberia have prompted the authorities to declare a regionwide state of emergency.

This is Altai's coldest December on record. It was minus 36 degrees in the region's administrative center Gorno-Altaisk on Wednesday night.

An enormous slab of sea floor is in the early stages of collapse off north Queensland, and could generate a tsunami when it finally breaks off, researchers warn. The one cubic kilometer slab - dubbed the Noggin Block - is the remains of an ancient underwater landslide, and sits perched on the edge of the continental shelf. Researchers discovered it while mapping the sea floor around the Great Barrier Reef. James Cook University marine biologist Robin Beaman says the slab will eventually break away from the Great Barrier Reef and when that happens it could generate a huge tsunami. "It's actually up on the top of the continental slope in about 350 meters of water,"

Amateur video shows boiling water freezes instantaneously in Siberia as temperatures dip below minus 40 degrees Celsius.

If any nation on Earth is accustomed to dealing with a harsh winter, it would be Russia. But from the farthest reaches of Siberia to downtown Moscow, the Russian people are being pummeled by a winter so brutal it's shattering cold-weather records across the continent - and it's only December.

As temperatures plunge as low as - minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius) in some areas, the Pravda news site reports that 45 people have died of causes related to the subfreezing weather; 21 people froze to death in just one day. Hundreds more have been hospitalized with frostbite and other conditions.

Subfreezing weather combined with heavy snowfall in some regions have crippled the nation's infrastructure, closing roads, scrambling airline flights and bursting pipes that carry water and heat into homes, schools and businesses, according to RT.com.

Like ice bombs falling from the sky.

That's how motorists described their nightmare on the Port Mann Bridge early Wednesday afternoon when giant icicles began to drop from the overhead cables and damage cars.

RCMP closed the new toll bridge in both directions for several hours until about 6 p.m. after many vehicles were hit by the falling ice and two occupants were injured, sending one to hospital.

Several large clumps of ice crashed through car windshields and ICBC has received 107 vehicle damage claims as of Thursday morning.

"There was no way to get around it, there was no way to move - it looked like a meteor shower of snow," said Jared Angell of Abbotsford.

His work truck sports a spider web of cracks in the front windshield and multiple dents to the roof.

"I probably got hit at least 10 times," Angell said. "I wasn't nervous until the windshield shattered, then I started to get nervous. You're hoping another one doesn't hit the same spot."

He was one of at least four drivers with Port Mann ice damage who ended up in the same autobody shop in Abbotsford.

Karl Nylund said he was "freaked out" when ice punched right through the back window of his Subaru as he was inching across the bridge in very slow traffic.

The Icelandic Marine Research Institute has ruled out that the herring that swam ashore in large numbers and died in Kolgrafafjörður fjord in West Iceland last week were killed by infection, from which the fish stock has suffered for some time. The infection has reportedly not progressed. Captain Runólfur Guðmundsson from Grundarfjörður has put forth the theory that a cold current below the surface of the fjord is to blame, reasoning that it may have been so cold that ice crystals formed inside the fish and killed them, Fréttablaðið reports.
Þorsteinn Sigurðsson, manager of the Marine Research Institute's exploitable marine stock division did not dismiss Runólfur's theory but stated that the ocean temperature had been around zero, which the herring are supposed to be able to handle.

Bjarni Sigurbjörnsson, a resident at the farm Eiði by Kolgrafafjörður, said whales and birds have taken advantage of the incident and been feasting on the buffet of nature.

Canada, British Columbia - The head of the Crown corporation that built the Port Mann Bridge says the company is reviewing yesterday's closure of the multi-billion-dollar span after snow and ice fell from the bridge's support cables, injuring two people and damaging several vehicles.

Mike Proudfoot, the CEO of the Transportation Investment Corporation, admits the coating on the cables that was supposed to push snow away from the deck didn't work.

But, he says, Wednesday was an unusual day.

"This is an extreme weather situation," he said.

"It is very rare, especially in the Lower Mainland, but it does occur and it has had similar effects on other cable stay bridges in other jurisdictions ... Snow can accumulate on any structure over roadways and no bridge is immune to it but what we saw was a very unusual combination of winter conditions."

Proudfoot says engineers were sent to the bridge and the contractor has been asked to come up with plans to avoid such problems in the future.

The corporation says it will forgive the toll and pick up the insurance deductible for vehicles damaged on the bridge.

Winter Storm Draco will continue to dump heavy snow and bring strong winds to the Upper Midwest through Thursday night. Blizzard warnings and winter storm warnings remain in effect for several states in the region. Significant travel disruption is likely. Draco initially brought heavy snow and wind to the West earlier this week before spreading across the Plains and Upper Midwest Wednesday into Thursday. As we close out the week, Draco will sweep through the East Coast with rain and wind while turning on the lake-effect snow machine in the Great Lakes. The warm side of Draco has resulted in severe thunderstorms and tornado reports in the South.
As Draco's low intensifies and swings northeastward across the Great Lakes through Thursday night, moderate to locally heavy snow or rain changing to snow is expected in parts of the upper-Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, targeting Iowa, Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northern Missouri and northern Michigan.

Snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour are likely at times in the heaviest snow bands and you may hear some rumbles of thunder during the snowstorm as well. Storm total snowfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches (locally more than a foot) are expected in the heaviest snow swath from parts of Iowa to Wisconsin and northern Michigan.