Frigid spell hits Northwest as storm forecast cancels flights across the US

Portland: Tyrone McDougald wore a long-eared, leopard-style hat as he sorted through racks of warm clothes at a homeless service centre in Portland, Oregon.

He was already wearing multiple layers, but with no roof of his own, he grabbed two more coats to help him face a bitter cold snap arriving in the Northwest.

“I’m hoping that I can get in a shelter,” he said. “That would relieve a lot of the burden.”

An approaching storm was expected to deliver snow to Portland, a city more accustomed to winter rain, by Saturday. It’s one of a number of sprawling storms bringing everything from what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening wind chills” in South Dakota to the possibility of tornadoes in the South. School and flights were cancelled in advance in parts of the South and Midwest. Republican candidates campaigning ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses were contending with a blizzard warning covering most of the state, and Nikki Haley’s campaign cancelled three Friday events and said it would be hosting “telephone town halls.”

Advocates were particularly worried about homeless people as well as older residents who might be snowed or iced in, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where the winters are typically mild.