Cold weather leads to school shutdowns

Staff and wire report

Winter started today in a second month of bitter cold, with subzero temperatures expected for highs through Friday and lows approaching minus 40, as much of the rest of the country also prepares for bitter cold.

The cold has led to some schools canceling classes, stopping buses or going to online learning, impacted sporting events and other activities and led Havre's Montana Veterans Affairs Division office to cancel outreach.

The temperatures started cold Tuesday and just got colder as the first official day of winter approached, with the high in Havre Tuesday minus 13 at 12:34 p.m. and the weather turning colder as the day went on. Weather Service reports Havre hit minus 34.6 at 6:35 a.m. and at 9 a.m. was at minus 33 with a minus 60 wind chill.

Veterans Affairs had planned outreach in Shelby and Cut Bank today and in Browning Thursday, but has canceled those trips due to the weather.

Harlem Public Schools announced via Facebook that, due to severe cold weather, school is canceled for today, Dec. 21, and Thursday, Dec. 22, with school resuming Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Big Sandy Public Schools announced via Facebook that school will be held today but no buses will be running and classes will not be held Thursday.

North Star Schools said in a release that it will hold classes remotely today and no buses will run. Students and staff will work from home and students must check in with their teachers, the release said.

Thursday, school, basketball games, and the Snowball dance are all canceled, the North Star release said, with rescheduling to be announced laters.

The release said people with questions can contact Superintendent James Russell at [email protected].

Turner schools announced via Facebook that basketball games scheduled against Box Elder have been rescheduled to Jan. 10, with the girls game at 4 p.m. and boys at 5:30 p.m.

Chinook Public Schools announced via Facebook it will not run route buses Tuesday or today, Dec. 20 and 21. Bus students will be given a school excused absence Tuesday and today.

The Hays-Lodge Pole at Chinook basketball game scheduled for today is postponed due to the weather. A reschedule date will be announced for Chinook to travel to Hays and the original home date of Hays-Lodge Pole at Chinook Saturday, Jan. 28, will be restored.

Local temperatures are expected to remain bitterly cold for the next few days.

In Havre, National Weather Service forecast the high today at minus 22 with a low tonight of minus 33. The high Thursday is expected to hit minus 18 with a low of minus 38.

The weather will get - relatively - warmer Friday, with Havre's high forecast at minus 5 and a low of minus 13, then the weather getting significantly warmer Saturday for Christmas Eve.

Chester is expected to hit 37 degrees Saturday, with Big Sandy's high predicted at 35 degrees.

Havre is expected to reach 26 Saturday, with Chinook's high forecast at 22 degrees and Harlem's at 8 degrees, although south in the Little Rockies Hays is predicted to reach 33 degrees.

Lows Saturday night are expected to range from 18 degrees in Chester to zero in Harlem.

But highs on Christmas Day are expected to be in the upper 30s to even a prediction of 40 in Big Sandy, and lows mainly in the teens, with the warmer highs and lows expected to continue at least through Tuesday, with the forecast lows Monday ranging from the upper teens and 20s to near freezing at Hays.

Winter hits the nation hard

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that a large swath of the U.S. braced for a dangerous mix of sub-zero temperatures, howling winds and blizzard conditions expected to disrupt plans for millions of holiday travelers.

The blast of frigid weather began hammering the Pacific Northwest Tuesday morning and moved to the northern Rockies, then is expected to grip the Plains in a deep-freeze and blanket the Midwest with heavy snowfall, forecasters say. By Friday, the arctic front is forecast to spread bone-chilling cold as far south as Florida.

Authorities across the country are worried about the potential for power outages and warned people to take precautions to protect the elderly, the homeless and livestock - and, if possible, to postpone travel.

The northern-most regions of the U.S. could see wind chills approaching 70 degrees below zero - cold enough to leave exposed skin frostbitten in a matter of minutes.

Even warm-weather states are preparing for the worst. Texas officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the February 2021 storm that left millions without power, some for several days. Temperatures were expected to dip to near freezing as far south as central Florida by the weekend.

The drop in temperatures will be precipitous. In Denver, the high today will be around 50 degrees; by Thursday, it is forecast to plummet to around zero.

The heaviest snow is expected in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, according to the National Weather Service, and frigid wind will be fierce across the country's mid-section.

"I would not be surprised if there are lots of delays due to wind and also a lot of delays due to the snow," said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The Northwest was already experiencing the effects by Tuesday. In Vancouver, Canada, authorities at the city's YVR airport said the conditions have resulted in an "unprecedented number of canceled flights," adding that cancellations and delays "will persist for the majority of scheduled flights" and that de-icing operations will continue to be necessary. In Seattle, a combination of snow, rain and low visibility caused nearly 200 flight cancellations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Greyhound canceled bus service between Seattle and Spokane, Washington.

In Oregon, one person died Tuesday after a semi-truck collided with an SUV. Police said a thin layer of ice on the highway may have been a contributing factor.

Nearly 113 million Americans were expected to travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday season, up 4% from last year but still short of the record 119 million in 2019, according to AAA. Most were planning to travel by car; around 6% were planning to fly.

Several inches of snow were expected from Chicago through the Great Lakes region by Friday. Snow also was forecast in the lower Midwest. With the storm approaching, Delta, American, United and Southwest airlines said they were waiving change fees for people traveling through affected airports.

The National Weather Service predicted Tuesday wind-chill levels in Montana that could approach 60 degrees below zero by Thursday morning - which north-central Montana actually saw today.

Almost impossibly, the forecast was even worse for parts of Wyoming. The 1,500-resident town of Lusk could see wind chills of 70 degrees below zero.

"Please take precautions: Check on elderly/vulnerable, protect pets, shelter livestock, cover exposed skin!" the local branch of the National Weather Service said on Twitter.

Karina Jones' family raises about 400 head of cattle in north-central Nebraska near Broken Bow, where wind chills as low as 50 below zero are expected Thursday and Friday mornings. She said Nebraska cattle ranchers are "a hearty bunch," but the bitter cold is rough.

Ranchers "lie awake at night praying that you did everything you could for your livestock," Jones said.

In Kansas, where up to 4 inches of snow is expected to accompany wind chills dipping to 40 degrees below zero, Shawn Tiffany runs three feedlots with about 35,000 cattle combined. He's worried about keeping 40 employees safe and warm.

"Every conversation I've had for the last four days has consisted of 'Are you prepared and are you ready?' Everybody is taking it very seriously," Tiffany said.

In Texas, where the temperature is expected to drop to around 11 degrees, the state's power grid will be put to the test once again.

A historic freeze in February 2021 led to one of the biggest power outages in U.S. history, knocking out electricity to 4 million customers in Texas and leading to hundreds of deaths.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, said last week it expects to have sufficient generation to meet anticipated electricity demand during this week's winter blast. The council said it has implemented reforms to increase reliability, including bringing more generation online sooner if needed and purchasing more reserve power.

But a report on the power grid that ERCOT published last month said that Texans could still face possible power outages this winter if an extreme storm prompted very high demand for electricity.

In Jackson, Mississippi, where dangerously cold weather is expected by the weekend, all eyes are on the capital city's troubled water system. A cold snap in 2021 left tens of thousands of people without running water after pipes froze, and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Monday that the water distribution system remains a "huge vulnerability."

The deep-freeze will be particularly dangerous for people without homes. Salt Lake City will make 95 additional shelter beds available after five died in recent days amid sub-freezing temperatures, Mayor Erin Mendenhall, a Democrat, said.

In Kansas City, Missouri, emergency shelters are opening for anyone needing warmth, food or safety. Organizers warn, though, that capacity is limited overnight.

"We're going to get in as many as we can," said Karl Ploeger, chief development officer for City Union Mission, a Christian nonprofit.

If the shelters are over-capacity at night, the mission works with other organizations to try and find alternatives for people.

Northern Florida cities such as Tallahassee may see temperatures in the low 20s Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas nights. The forecast calls for temperatures to drop to near freezing as far south as Tampa.

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Lozano reported from Houston and Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, Julie Walker in New York, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Jill Zeman Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi, Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana, and Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.