(Bloomberg) -- Flights are already being grounded as a winter storm bears down on Texas and the US South, bringing snow and ice that could coat power lines and trigger blackouts.
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As of 2:45 p.m. in New York, 631 flights to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had been canceled for Thursday, according to FlightAware. Cancellations may also hit major US air hub Atlanta, which is forecast to get snow and freezing rain on Friday.
At least 23 million people from Texas to the southern Appalachian Mountains are under winter storm watches, said Peter Mullinax, a forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center. Winter weather advisories, watches and warnings now stretch from New Mexico to eastern Kentucky.
“It is going to be a pretty dicey travel setup,” Mullinax said. “Any air or road travel is looking at the potential for quite a few impacts.”
The storm, which may bring 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of snow along with ice across north Texas, has also raised the specter of problems for the electric grids in the region. As much as 6 inches of snow may fall across central Arkansas and parts of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.
While temperatures won’t tumble to the extreme lows seen during the February 2021 storm that killed more than 200 people and left millions in the dark for days, the latest cold outbreak raises concern about the stability of the state’s fragile power grid.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, warned of possible tight power conditions Jan. 8 through Jan. 10 due to the storm. PJM Interconnection, which oversees the grid serving more than 65 million people from Washington DC to Chicago, is asking transmission and power-plant operators to consider deferring any maintenance over that period and to shore up fuel supplies for generators.
--With assistance from Naureen S. Malik.
(Updates with flight cancellations in second paragraph.)
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