having just come back from the u.n. climate conference, we re trying to share it with the world. thank you so much for coming on. i know you guys have a like a multi-day event that everybody is looking at, including in des moines so thank you for coming on and be safe. so the weather is impacting air travel and setting off a ripple effect across the country forcing more than 1500 flight cancellations so far. pete muntean is live at this hour at chicago o hare airport. pete, how is it looking? reporter: well, believe it or not, here, kate, the crowd has thinned a little bit. what you could take one of two ways. one that folks heeded the advice of airlines and rebooked to earlier flights before the snow hits in earnest, or two, that folks are simply finding out that their flights are indeed canceled. today was supposed to be the busiest pre-christmas day in terms of the number of flights
airports are trying to prepare. in chicago, places across the midwest that typically deal with snow and ice this time of year are preparing their de-icing materials here, over 400,000 gallons, trying to clear the runways and taxi ways to make sure there s no issues there. where we have to look are in places like alabama, atlanta, of course, the world s busiest airport there as planes come in and out which has the potential to disrupt so much. so a lot of travelers we re seeing today are people trying to get ahead of those conditions like someone we spoke to a little bit earlier. i think my dad just saw on the news that s there s going to be a huge blizzard thursday, and my brother only has a few days off while we visit him so we didn t want to lose days with delays. so we moved it up altogether.
snowy conditions. nearly everyone in the lower 48 is going to see temperatures dip below freezing. alabama is seeing wind chill alerts and in the upper midwest, conditions could be life threatening. it s expected to hit on friday, as more than 100 million americans are expected to travel for the holidays. some cities will have their coldest christmas in year, atlanta, a high of 32 degrees, tying the second coldest christmas on record. new york a high of 27 degrees, its coldest in 22 years. let s bring in omar jimenez live from chicago o hare airport, where he s warm and snugly, because he s inside. the impact is expected to hit the cities nationwide. how are they preparing and dealing for the weather? reporter: the one good thing ahead of the forecast is
country are under winter storm watches, warnings of what is expected to be the worst prechristmas storm in decades. the national weather service sounded the alarm for travellers to prepare for considerable travel impacts as the arctic cold sets in. i want to bring in maggie vespa from chicago o hare airport. at least you re indoors. talk to me about the delays. reporter: we re happy to be indoors, even if this is the scene behind us. you can see the line behind me there. it s always crowded at o hare. especially during the holidays. that line back there is filled with people who are having issues already with their flights. delays and cabslations already stacking up out west. you also combined that with people who are heeding the warnings and they moved their flights up to try to beat this storm. the airlines have waved reboxing fees. they have been asking people it they are flying on thursday or friday to try to move that up and to get ahead of the storm.
their car said 49 degrees. that s the forecast high. look at the low temperature coming in the next few hours. negative 14 degrees. that s incredible. it won t go above zero for the afternoon tomorrow so it is imperative that people are warned ahead of the storm that the arctic outbreak coming is going to be very serious and it could be life-threatening as well. exposed skin could lead to frostbite quickly. radar doesn t look that impressive right now but the cold front is marching to the south and east. frigid air and it is about literally to sucker punch denver and the front range of colorado as it sweeps east and starts to gain some momentum. where does it have its eye set? the midwest, the plains and into the region of the great lakes. the blizzard warnings outside of minneapolis into iowa, central and southern minnesota and the southern portions of lake michigan. that s just east of chicago, nonetheless chicago o hare airport, you will be majorly impacted by this with winter