These extreme conditions led to the death of at least 30 people, according to a count carried out by AFP using local American media. In Texas, authorities have confirmed the death of a 16-year-old girl killed in a sledding accident. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and one in Iowa during a collision. Eight people were found dead in New York, and an investigation was launched to determine the causes of death.
Seven of the eight passengers on a plane that crashed on takeoff during a snowstorm in Maine (northeast) on Sunday evening have died, the FAA, the air transport regulator, said. A state of emergency was declared in around twenty states as well as in the capital, Washington, and means of transport were severely disrupted.
Several large airports, in Washington, Philadelphia and New York, were almost at a standstill, while more than 22,000 flights have been canceled since Saturday and thousands more have been delayed, according to the FlightAware website. The storm is linked to a deformation of the polar vortex, an air mass usually circulating above the north pole, but which has stretched towards the south. Scientists believe that the increasing frequency of these vortex disruptions could be linked to climate change, although the debate is not settled and natural variability also plays a role. A self-confessed climate skeptic, Donald Trump nevertheless used the storm as an excuse to put the issue back on the table on his Truth Social platform: “Could the environmental insurgents please explain to me: what happened to global warming?” he wrote.
