Extreme weather created delays across much of the country in the run-up to Christmas Day, with canceled flights and congested roads. While travel disruptions were mostly remedied by Saturday, the West Coast may be feeling the effects of bad weather soon as a storm system moves toward the region. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
By Ian Johnston, NBC News
Travel delays caused by a wintry mix of snow, high winds and heavy rain continued across the country Saturday, and some areas were expecting up to a foot of snow by days' end.
The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings early Saturday for parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio on the East Coast and also parts of Northern California and Oregon on the West.
As of 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday, more than 3,300 flights had been delayed and 102 were canceled, according to the website flightstats.com.
Chicago?s O?Hare International Airport was the worst affected with 10 canceled and 223 delayed flights, according to the website?s figures.
On Friday, nearly 900 flights were canceled and 13,500 delayed across the country, flightstats reported.
Weather.com said the storm was likely to linger over northern New England during the weekend.
?Winds will be the most intense from parts of southern New England and New York to the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday,? it said. ?Gusts could reach 40 or 50 mph at times during the afternoon, which may result in airport delays from New York City to D.C. In addition, isolated power outages and tree damage cannot be rule out as well.?
?Farther to the west, the Great Lakes snowbelts and Appalachians will continue to see wind-whipped snow on Saturday,? Weather.com added. ?The classic snowbelt locations will see the highest storm total snowfall amounts (northeast Ohio, northwest Pa., southwest N.Y., W.V. mountains, for example).?
After extreme weather upset travel plans in the last few days, the forecast on the horizon seems ready for Santa, with a possible dusting of snow expected in some parts of the country. TODAY's Dylan Dreyer reports.
It warned people in those areas to be prepared for winter driving conditions with ?sudden reductions in visibility? due to the weather possible.
At Chicago's O'Hare airport, travelers who spent Thursday night there included Patricia Oliver, who called her attempt to get from California to Waterloo, Iowa, "a nightmare."
"They keep pushing us and bumping us and booting us back," she told NBCChicago.com. "We slept two nights on the floor."
Mike Quieto traveled three hours on a bus to get to O'Hare, only to find out his flight was canceled. "I found out from checking my cellphone, and they didn't announce that until after the bus had already gotten here," Quieto told NBCChicago.com.
More than a foot of snow
The NWS warned the bad weather was likely to continue.
?A significant winter storm continues to work its way through the Northeast tonight bringing heavy snows and strong winds to the region,? the National Weather Service?s website said late Friday.
?Snows are forecast to continue tomorrow [Saturday] with totals exceeding a foot in some areas,? it added.
On Thursday, two people were killed and seven injured in a 30-vehicle pileup on Interstate 35 in Iowa. Drivers were blinded by blowing snow and didn't see vehicles that had slowed or stopped, causing a chain reaction of crashes, state police said.
Thousands of flights disrupted across US as storm hits Northeast
The storm was also blamed for traffic deaths in three other states: two deaths each in Nebraska and Wisconsin; and one in Kansas.
In Utah, a woman who tried to walk for help after her car became stuck in snow died Tuesday night.
The West Coast was also seeing stormy weather.
The NWS said several inches of rain along with several feet of snow in elevated areas were expected in California and Oregon this weekend.
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