December 2022 North American blizzard

From December 21 to 26, 2022, an extratropical cyclone, referred to unofficially as Winter Storm Elliott by the Weather Channel and numerous media outlets, and sometimes dubbed The Blizzard of the Century and the 2022 Buffalo blizzard in New York State, created crippling winter storm conditions, including blizzards, high winds, snowfall, and record cold temperatures across the majority of the United States and parts of Canada. Impacted areas included parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, with Buffalo, New York and the Fort Erie and the Kingston area of Ontario experiencing two full days of hazardous conditions and zero visibility. The cold wave affected all U.S. states from Colorado to the Eastern Seaboard, with effects felt as far south as Miami, Florida. On December 24, 110 million people across 36 states were subject to wind chill alerts.

The storm, and its related cold wave, killed at least 100 people, with six additional deaths occurring due to a simultaneous, smaller storm in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Oregon, Washington). Forty-one of the deaths from the main storm occurred in the Buffalo area where lake-effect snowfall exceeded 56 in (140 cm) over a five-day period, while other deaths from that storm and the cold wave occurred across 17 states and the province of Ontario. The storm caused extensive vehicle pileups and road closures, particularly in the areas affected by blizzards or adjacent to those areas, with a complete driving ban imposed in Buffalo for five-and-a-half days. Due to the storm, more than 18,200 flights were canceled in the U.S. between December 22 and 28, while hundreds more were canceled in Canada. Buffalo Niagara International Airport was the most severely affected, as it was completely shut down for five days. Numerous inter-city passenger rail trips were delayed or canceled in the U.S., while in Ontario, Via Rail service between Toronto and Montreal or Ottawa was completely suspended for over 2 days due to a derailment. About 6.3 million households in the U.S. and 1.1 million in Canada were without power for some part of the storm.

The National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York, described it as a "once-in-a-generation storm" for Buffalo, and NOAA's Weather Prediction Center stated it was a "historic arctic outbreak".