If you haven’t heard, there is a huge winter storm moving across most of the U.S. just in time for the holiday travel season. If you were planning to travel in some of the hardest hit states, say, Wyoming, police and first responders are kindly asking you to stay home.
This video might give you a hint as to why. It was taken Wednesday night from a Wyoming Highway patrol car outside of Cheyenne:
Ice is also a major concern on roadways as well as snow, which Wyoming already got a big dose of last week. Wednesday temperatures dropped an astonishing 43 degrees in only half an hour in the Cowboy State. Wyoming remains under a winter weather advisory today. The state is experiencing wind chill temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees below zero. From the Cowboy State Daily:
“Current view from a Troopers car in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Current conditions outside of Cheyenne are -18 with zero visibility,” the Highway Patrol said about 6:30pm on Wednesday.
The danger is very real for both drivers and first responders. The same day the above video was taken, a first responder was killed after a semi-truck crashed into the back of an ambulance attending to a two car accident in Carbon County, Wyoming.
And it’s not just the Cowboy state. Nearly every state is affected by the arctic blast and the ice and snow coming with it. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency for all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties yesterday and states not use to extreme cold, like Louisiana and Texas, are batting down the hatches for this arctic blast, according to CNN.
If you’re travelling this holiday season it would be wise to consider not doing so, especially if you’re in the Plain states or around the Great Lakes, where lake-affect snow will dump two feet in some places. If you have no choice, take it slow, make sure your car is outfitted with blankets, water and chemical heating packs should things go astray and always make sure to have a fully charged cell phone available.