A powerful winter storm that pummeled much of the United States with freezing rain and heavy snowfall forced airlines to cancel and delay thousands of flights on Monday.

Nearly 19% of scheduled flights were canceled by late afternoon, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Separate data from FlightAware found about 5,220 U.S flights were canceled and more than 6,500 delayed by early evening. That followed 11,000 flights scrapped on Sunday - the highest daily total since the pandemic, according to Cirium. (Reuters)