Winter storm and severe cold sweeps across US

Jefferson County, New York, declared a state of emergency and enacted a travel ban Saturday, the state police announced, as the region faces strong winds and blizzard conditions.

The county is experiencing “life threatening blizzard conditions,” the National Weather Service of Buffalo said Saturday, with winds gusting as high as 60 mph.

The city of Watertown saw 14 inches of snow over the past 24 hours, according to the weather service. Very heavy snowfall rates of three to four inches per hour are also possible on Saturday, which could lead to another two to four feet of snow accumulations in the “most persistent bands” across the county, they said.

Wind chills as low as 20 degrees below zero could cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes, the weather service warned.

“Travel will be impossible,” the weather service wrote, adding that widespread blowing snow could reduce visibility to zero.

The extreme winter weather continues to impede holiday travel plans, as there are more than 1,800 flight cancellations nationwide on Saturday morning, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.  

More than 3,300 flights have also been delayed so far on Saturday. 

The following cities were most affected by delays and cancellations into and out of their airports:

Duke Energy is asking its customers in Ohio and Kentucky to voluntarily reduce usage of all non-essential electricity until 10 a.m. local time Christmas Day, as “power supplies are tight due to extremely cold temperatures and increased energy use."

“This will help PJM [regional electric grid operator] member utilities to continue delivering reliable service during this period of significantly low temperatures across the region,” the power company stated in a news release.

Rolling blackouts across Memphis, Tennessee, are impacting more than 50,000 people at a time, Mayor Jim Strickland told CNN’s Sara Sidner on Saturday morning. 

Residents are being forced off of the power grid for 30 minutes to an hour at a time, likely two to three times per day, Strickland said. He added that the city is working to reach the most vulnerable individuals, such as those who require power for medical devices. 

Strickland said temperatures are not expected to rise above 32 degrees Fahrenheit for at least the next two days. 

The state of emergency in place will help reimburse expenses and bring issues, such as caring for homeless individuals, to the forefront, according to Strickland. Several hundred homeless individuals are being cared for by city-run facilities as well as nonprofits and churches. 

In terms of roadways, Strickland said conditions on major thoroughfares have significantly improved, however people should still only travel if necessary.  

A severe winter storm continues to unleash treacherous conditions across the country this holiday weekend.

If you're just now catching up, here are some of the storm's latest developments:

Rising death toll: At least 15 people have died across multiple states, including New York, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas and Missouri.

Power outages: More than 1.7 million customers across the US are still without power as of Saturday morning, according to Poweroutage.Us. Before daylight on Saturday, utility companies were making progress on restoring power, but numbers could grow throughout the day as strong winds are forecast for much of the Midwest and Northeast. In states like North Carolina and Tennessee, residents are told to expect temporary power outages as the weather puts a strain on electricity providers.

Bitterly cold temperatures: More than 100 million people in the US remain under wind chill alerts Saturday morning. Some alerts have begun to expire across portions of the central and eastern regions of the country.

Holiday impacts: The winter storm has upended holiday travel for three consecutive days now, as airlines have canceled more than 9,000 flights in total between Thursday, Friday and advance cancellations on Saturday nationwide. More than 1,600 flights have been canceled so far Saturday across the country. Couriers including Amazon, the US Postal Service, UPS and FedEx are warning customers of disruptions to their operations in the final delivery day before Christmas due to the storm.

Some wind chill alerts have begun to expire across portions of the central and eastern regions of the US, reducing the number of people under these alerts to more than 100 million people.

The alerts still include these cities:

A vast majority of these remaining alerts will expire by mid-day.

John Cooper, the metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County mayor, on Saturday morning issued a tweet calling on the Tennessee Titans NFL team to postpone their noon game “in solidarity with our neighbors,” amid ongoing rolling blackouts by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 

Cooper said the TVA’s unilateral rolling blackouts will continue and asked all non-essential businesses to reduce power usage.

“TVA needs to invest in infrastructure to withstand extreme temps,” the mayor added.

CNN has reached out to the NFL and Tennessee Titans organizations for comment.

A total of 27.8 inches (more than two feet) of snowfall has been recorded at Buffalo airport in New York since the snow began Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, much of the southern and eastern shorelines of the Great Lakes remain under blizzard warnings through tomorrow morning due to strong winds and additional lake-effect snow across the region.

The heaviest snowfall is expected east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through tomorrow where an additional one to two feet of snow is possible. Winds could also gust as high as 65 mph across these regions today. 

Here are some additional snowfall totals over the last 24 hours, according to the weather service:

Duke Energy, the electric power company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday morning announced “emergency outages” as extremely cold temperature drive unusually high energy demand across the Carolinas.

“We have begun short, temporary power outages. These emergency outages are necessary to protect the energy grid against longer, more widespread outages. We appreciate your patience,” the energy provider said in a tweet.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper spoke with the Duke Energy CEO, according to a statement from his office. 

“This morning I spoke with Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good to offer assistance and to express urgency about the need to restore power quickly in this extreme cold while keeping customers accurately informed,” Cooper said in the statement. “I’m grateful for the workers braving the wind and cold to get the power back on."