AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter joined Cheddar News to discuss how upcoming winter storms will affect holiday travel for most of the country.

Winter Storms to Slam Most of the U.S.

Christmas is right around the quarter. I hope you're in the holiday mood happening this weekend, more than 80% turns out of the nation is gonna experience temperatures below freezing. That's the holiday gift that we get this year? An arctic blast expected to deliver the coldest Christmas nearly 40 years to the Midwest and the weather will likely affect your own holiday travel. So joining me now is Jonathan, Porter, chief meteorologist for Accuweather, Jonathan. Oh my gosh, so good to see you. This story applies to me and I'm sure it applies to so many more people. So what do we need to know as we prepare to embark on our own holiday trips? That's right, Kristen, Well, good afternoon and happy holidays. Great to be with you Once again, I'm afraid we're dealing with two big stories leading up into the christmas weekend that is going to be a surge and plunge of arctic air all the way down to texas, the gulf coast and florida over time at the same time as an intense winter storm. In fact, a blizzard in some places will deliver heavy snow and gusty The winds above 40 mph to place like Chicago and Detroit and Kristen were going to be talking about some big time travel problems here, a real travel nightmare as we head in the next couple of days, let's talk about that. The travel nightmare. My flight still on, it's still on for Thursday morning, Jonathan Fingers crossed, I can actually get out. What are the challenging days for travelers that this weather will present. Well, Christie. The real problem with this particular storm is accuweather. Meteorologists have been highlighting since early last week, is that a lot of times when you're dealing with a big storm, maybe it's only one part of the country and the rest of the country is relatively okay weather wise, but in this particular case we're going to be dealing with major hubs affected both on thursday and friday. So Chicago o'hare Midway. Those are big hubs across the midwest and then over toward Detroit with the heavy snow and the blue conditions there. It's going to really shut down those air operations for quite some time thursday night into friday and then shifting east, although not snow. Other big problems, there are low clouds, fog, gusty winds and heavy rain and the big I 95 terminals from boston to new york down to philadelphia and Dc as well. So the problem with this one is there going to be big issues in the central and eastern part of the United States, almost Nowhere to escape. And this is the kind of situation where those air delays can quickly mount and compound because you have so much traffic coming in and out of those terminals that then affect the rest of the air system. Our other experts are forecasting that two thirds of the flights across the country could be impacted on Thursday and Friday. That's could be more than 5000 flights either delayed or canceled, impacted in some way on those two days Jonathan, pack your patience. We know that's kind of the theme of this pandemic but also pack your warm clothes. What are these temperatures we're talking about? I mean, I see negative degrees in some cases. Big time in that regard. Effect in some parts of the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains were going to be talking about accuweather real field temperatures, which factor in the air temperature, the wind speed cloud cover a variety of other factors minus 50 to minus 60 F chris in some places in the most impacted locations across northern Plains. But that cold air is gonna spill all the way down the planes into texas. We're talking about temperatures below zero in Amarillo, probably five or six degrees in the Dallas area, 15 to 20 in Houston. And that cold weather also over to New Orleans and eventually all the way down to Miami temperatures in the forties in some places in the Miami area and below freezing further north in florida. So that cold air is gonna have some big staying power. Okay, it's better than the negative 11 Jonathan that I see on my destination as to where I'm going, Jonathan. Porter, chief meteorologist at Accuweather, Jonathan. Thank you