‘Bomb Cyclone’ Winter Storm Causes Over 4,000 Cancelled Flights Across U.S.

Amid the holiday travel rush, over 4,000 flights have been canceled across the United States because of a massive winter storm.

As of 3 p.m. ET according to tracking website FlightAware, approximately 4,700 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled on Friday.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport suffered the highest number of cancellations with over 250 flights being nixed, while Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport saw over 240 cancellations. Other major airports heavily impacted include New York’s LaGuardia, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Portland International Airport, and Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York, meanwhile, had to close entirely. “The Buffalo Airport Airfield has closed due to hazardous weather conditions,” the official Twitter account for the airport said.

Even President Biden chimed in about the storm. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” he said on Thursday. “This is serious stuff.”

Per weather experts, a bomb cyclone occurs when atmospheric pressure drops at a rapid pace in a major storm, leading to snow and heavy winds.

And it’s not just flights that have been impacted either, as train and bus services have been forced to cancel services as well. In a notice posted this week, Amtrak said “customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day.”