Snow storm grounds hundreds of Chicago flights, forces One Republic to cancel Vegas appearance

Hundreds of flights into and out of Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports were canceled Sunday as a winter storm system dumped moderate to heavy snow on the Upper Midwest and Lower Great Lakes regions before heading toward the U.S. Northeast.

Among those stranded was the band One Republic, who had been scheduled to perform tonight in Las Vegas.

A winter storm warning was in effect in the Chicago area on Sunday afternoon, with total accumulations of up to 10 inches expected by midnight CST, the National Weather Service said.

It warned of difficult driving conditions in and around the country’s third-biggest metropolitan area, where snow began falling on Saturday afternoon.

As much as 13 inches of snow fell in parts of Michigan and up to 9 inches in parts of Minnesota by 8 a.m. CST on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

At O’Hare International Airport, the world’s fourth-busiest airport, United Air Lines and American Airlines have scratched most regional flights and some mainline service, while Southwest Air has canceled most flights out of Midway International on Sunday evening and Monday morning, the airports said.

Passengers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations over one of the first winter storms to snarl air traffic in the region this season.

“To all our fans in Vegas — we are stuck in Chicago from the snow storm, we are so so sorry. Winter weather is (sic) wrecked our plans. This sucks,” wrote the rock band One Republic in a Twitter post.

The group had been slated to perform Sunday night at Mix 94.1’s Not So Silent Night Concert at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Despite OneRepublic’s cancellation, the other scheduled acts — The Fray, Lindsey Stirling and We the Kings — will still perform, and the concert will now be free, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m., according to a statement on One Republic’s Twitter account.

Refunds will be issued to all ticket purchasers through the original point of purchase. Hard Rock Hotel box office purchases will be refunded on Monday, starting at 10 a.m.

To all our fans in Vegas... @Mix941 pic.twitter.com/rmbCVB1Lls

— OneRepublic (@OneRepublic) December 11, 2016

.@OneRepublic forced to cancel tonight's performance. @TheFray @LindseyStirling @WeTheKings will still perform as concert is made FREE! pic.twitter.com/5bdiJuRR0I

— Mix 941 (@Mix941) December 11, 2016

All told, more than 1,200 flights into and out of O’Hare were canceled as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Flightaware tracking service, while nearly 200 Midway flights were scratched.

At Detroit’s Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, a Delta flight arriving from Buffalo, New York, skidded off the runway and came to a stop on a grassy verge around midday on Sunday, but there were no injuries, local media reported.

Representatives of the airport and the airline could not be reached immediately to confirm the reports.

Flights at McCarran International Airport are largely unaffected by the winter storms, according to airport spokesman Chris Jones.

“As a general thing it’s not affecting us, when there’s a ripple effect from the weather you see it delaying all flights but that’s not the case here,” Jones said.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration website, flights out of McCarran destined for Detroit are delayed about four hours, and flights to O’Hare are delayed about an hour.