最強(qiáng)寒流襲美 一夜降溫30℃

The Arctic chill was so pervasive that even Las Vegas may see snowy showers before theweekend is out, forecasters said. The coast-to-coast cold wave was predicted to spreadeastward to Virginia and up to New England on Sunday through Monday.

"What's happening across most of the country is we're getting a very early taste of winter," MikeMuscher, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said. "This is something you'd typically seein January or February."

A record-low temperature for December 7 - 42 degrees below zero (-41 C) - was recorded inJordan, Montana.

More than 3,300 travelers were forced to sleep on cots overnight at Dallas-Fort WorthInternational Airport, where airlines canceled more than 400 flights.

Nearly a thousand flights were canceled on Friday.Among the stranded travelers were Brenda and Doug Jones, who live in a Dallas suburb andhad planned to travel to Aruba for their honeymoon.After 14 hours waiting at the airport, they opted to go home. They said they found most peopleat the airport were in good spirits despite the conditions, cancellations and crowds.

"People were trying to help each other out," Brenda Jones said.At the height of the storm, some 267,000 electricity outages were reported in Texas, accordingto utility provider Oncor. That number was down to about 75,000 late on Saturday, and Oncorsaid it hoped to restore power to "nearly all" of its customers by Sunday night.

Larry Thompson and his wife, Jessica, both nurses at Dallas-area hospitals, headed to a localhotel with their four young children after losing power at home.

"I couldn't even warm a bottle," Thompson said."Everything is slick," he said. "The kids were holding hands and they're falling down, and I'mtrying to hold the baby. I don't have enough hands."Forecasters predicted sub-freezing temperatures and icy conditions in the region for the rest ofthe weekend, with sleet and layers of ice up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) thick around Dallas. Roadsand driveways were blocked by fallen limbs from trees heavy with ice.The city canceled a marathon planned for Sunday.A marathon for Saturday was canceled in Memphis, Tennessee, due to icy conditions and thedanger of falling tree limbs, organizers said.Streets were an icy and slushy mess across the region, and at least three people were killedwhen their cars skidded off the road, authorities said. In Fort Worth, traffic ground to a halt onseveral major highways because of wrecks that blocked icy roads.

The frigid air was due to roll into the northeast Sunday through Monday. Accuweatherpredicted a "wintry mess" of ice, freezing rain and the season's first snow accumulations fromWashington, DC, to Boston.

The cold weather system will leave the East Coast over Monday night, the National WeatherService said.