the airlines. they re nowhere to be found. i actually got hung up on multiple times. the problem is that southwest, they don t give any answer. they don t answer the phone. reporter: and southwest has issued a statement saying that the storm, quote, forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams used to recover the airline operating at capacity. they have apologized for these delays, but this is cold comfort for passengers who probably were delayed from their initial travel, getting home to family, and now have to deal with this after the holidays. awful situation, indeed. lucy cavanaugh in denver for us, thank you very much. let s go to the cnn weather center. our meteorologist tom seder is joining us. what is the forecast for the country still feeling this awful deep freeze? i don t think most of the country is grasping what is
just yesterday we only had about three states in the whole lower a8 that were not being affected so this has wide reaching storm with arctic temperatures reaching all the way to the gulf coast states bringing temperatures that they have never seen before. it is re have never seen before. it is pretty extraordinary. - have never seen before. it is pretty extraordinary. it - have never seen before. it is pretty extraordinary. it has been described as once in a generation, is that a statement you would agree with?- generation, is that a statement you would agree with? there are some that you would agree with? there are some that have you would agree with? there are some that have not you would agree with? there are some that have not seen - you would agree with? there are some that have not seen this - you would agree with? there are some that have not seen this in l some that have not seen this in 30 years, absolutely stopping at don t know if you can see this behind me but you nee
the roads are being covered up again with snowfall. so we are seeing this arctic blast covering most of the united states, from the rockies all the way to the east coastlines. in fact, earlier, just yesterday, we only had about three states in the whole lower a8 that were not being affected. so this has been a wide reaching storm, with arctic temperatures reaching all the way to the gulf coast states bringing temperatures that they have never seen before. it is pretty extraordinary. it has been described as once in a generation, is that a statement you would agree with? there are some that have not seen this in 30 years, absolutely. i don t know if you can see this behind me, but you need to see some of the numbers here. it s notjust how much the temperatures are falling, it s how fast. we ve seen a drop of 37 degrees in only an hour, and that is fahrenheit, in denver, 30 degrees in one hour in texas and one of the ones that has just been absolutely mind blowing, dropping from a3 fahre
officials, it s time to move from preparation to hunkering down and making your way off the roads. keep following that plow. tom, what are we seeing at the airports across the country? a lot of cancellations? absolutely. if shaq could pick up a burger and fries, that would be nice. we are looking at a total, nationwide, we have about 4,500 delays, at airports nationwide, and 1,725 cancellations. that will continue to grow as the weather moves in. let me give you a sense of which airports are getting hit the hardest. no surprise, chicago, ord, in denver, kansas city. des moines, st. louis. you see the theme here.
those of us staying home end up having the best option of all. thank you so much. to bill karins, some people are calling this a once in a generation storm. what parts of the country are hit worst? how fast is it moving? it s moving fast. it s not because of the snow. clarify that. this is not a big storm because of the snow. it s because of the dramatic temperature changes. a lot of people will see temperatures falling faster than they have seen before. it happened yesterday in wyoming, the temperature dropped 47 degrees in one hour. in denver, the temperature dropped i think it was 40 degrees in an hour or two. right now, it s 61 degrees colder in denver than this time yesterday. that s a huge swing. that is what is happening. the cold front is heading toward san antonio. st. louis the cold air is blowing in. look at the windchills. des moines is negative 37. chicago is at 25 because the cold air is beginning to move in. dallas is about to go subzero.