The NFL goes out of their way to make sure that the Super Bowl isn’t played in nasty winter weather to even be considered to host the big game a city has to have decent weather or a domed stadium. Dallas usually has both and just to make sure weather doesn’t play a part in the outcome of the game the retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium will be closed on Sunday. Despite all of their power, however, the NFL can’t handle the weather nationwide and the big winter storm in the Midwest has wreaked havoc on the travel plans of Packers and Steelers fans.
But it’s not just the bad weather conditions in the Midwest Texas was hit by a sizable ice storm previous this week. According to flight tracking service FlightAware at least 1,250 flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport have been canceled this week. That’s second only to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where ‘The Windy City’ has been impacted by one of the most severe blizzards in current memory. The storm in Texas was followed by unseasonably cold weather with high temperatures in the mid-teens.
Travelers all over the southern area of the United States are already experiencing headaches. The Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, had dozens and dozens of flights canceled as a rare winter snow storm crippled much of the southern United States. Currently, however, the National Weather Service is warning that the same storm is headed north and east.
The cities in the path of the storm, according to the Weather Service, include major travel hubs. Philadelphia, Boston and New York are all expected to take a hit. New York is expected to get between 8 to 14 inches starting Tuesday night and on in to Wednesday. Boston is predicted to get between 9 to 15 inches.
New York’s Governor Cuomo activated the state’s emergency plans on Tuesday. He did so in an effort to ensure that the streets will be cleared and that residents have access to the resources they need.
The National Weather Service has issued a “weather emergency” and is advising motorists and travelers to stay off the roads. Major cities have also initiated parking bans and are allowing snow taking away crews to tow and remove cars parked in snow zone.
chilling cold swept across the snow-hit Great Plains and Midwest on Monday, closing schools and playing havoc with journey plans and pushing sub-freezing temperatures as far south as Florida.
Minnesota and Wisconsin shivered in temperatures not expected to top single digits with wind chills much colder than that ,motorists were stranded on impassable roads in northwest Indiana.
Air traffic was gradually returning to regular after hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in midwestern and East Coast hubs during the worst of a storm that dropped 17 inches (43 cm) of snow in Minneapolis on Sunday that ripped holes in a stadium's inflatable roof.
Aerial pictures show the extent of damage in Taiwan caused by Typhoon Morakot The two strong storms across the Pacific region have left scores of people dead or missing.
At least ten people have been killed in Japan in flash floods generated by the approaching tropical storm Etau.
Meanwhile Typhoon Morakot hit mainland China on Sunday, killing at least one child and prompting almost a million people to flee from coastal areas.
It has already passed over Taiwan, killing at least 12 people and causing the worst flooding in 5 decades.
Taiwan's National Disaster Relief Centre said it believed about 100 people were trapped in a landslide that hit the mountain village of Shiao Lin on Sunday morning.
Typhoons and tropical storms are frequent in the region between July and September.
Swept away
Nearly 50,000 people in western Japan have been told to leave coastal areas after warnings of rain, floods and mudslides triggered by the approach of Etau.
Eight people have died in Hyogo prefecture, including one man whose car was swept away by a swollen river and a woman who was found dead in a gutter.
Another woman was killed in a mudslide in Okayama prefecture.
The storm may hit central Japan on Tuesday, an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Meanwhile, Typhoon Morakot dumped a record 2.5 metres (100 inches) of rain on Taiwan over the weekend, leaving at least 12 people dead, among them a group reportedly washed away from a makeshift shelter in Kaohsiung in the south.
Taiwanese television has reported that about 200 homes in Shiao Lin village have been buried by mud.
Roads to the village have been cut and heavy rain and cloud cover have made it difficult for rescue helicopters to reach the area.
In another incident, an entire hotel - empty at the time - was swept away by the waters.
The typhoon then went on to hit mainland China on Sunday afternoon, destroying more than 2,000 houses and causing at least one major river to burst its banks.
Chinese state media said the sky turned completely dark in Beibi, Fujian, when it made landfall.
Trees were uprooted as high winds and heavy rain lashed the coast.
Some 473,000 residents of Zhejiang province were evacuated before the storm struck, as well as 480,000 from Fujian, Xinhua news agency said.
In Zhejiang's Wenzhou City a four year-old child was killed when a house collapsed. Dozens of roads were said to be flooded and the city's airport was closed.
Rescuers used dinghies to reach the worst-hit areas; in one area only the tops of trees were said to be showing above the floodwater.
Two storms roared across Asia making landfall in Taiwan, forcing a million people to flee inland. Authorities have Tokyo on alert in case the typhoon changes course. Barry Peterson reports.
Although the storm is losing strength, violent rainstorms are expected across six eastern Chinese provinces and Taiwan over the next few hours.
Morakot has also contributed to heavy rains in the Philippines. At least 10 people were killed in flooding and landslides in the north of the country last week.
Liam Dutton, BBC Weather Presenter Typhoons are low pressure systems that form over tropical waters, with organised thunderstorms and winds at low levels that circulate in an anti-clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere.
In order for a storm to gain typhoon status, it has to have sustained winds of 74mph (120 Km/h) or more.
In the northern hemisphere most typhoons occur between June and November with a peak in September. However, in the north-west Pacific it is possible to get a typhoon at any time of the year.
For more information visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8192633.stm
The NFL goes out of their way to make sure that the Super Bowl isn’t played in nasty winter weather to even be considered to host the big game a city has to have decent weather or a domed stadium. Dallas usually has both and just to make sure weather doesn’t play a part in the outcome of the game the retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium will be closed on Sunday. Despite all of their power, however, the NFL can’t handle the weather nationwide and the big winter storm in the Midwest has wreaked havoc on the travel plans of Packers and Steelers fans.
