A powerful winter storm sweeping across large parts of the United States has claimed at least seven lives, knocked out electricity to more than 800,000 homes and caused widespread disruption to travel and public services.
Authorities said the storm has created life-threatening conditions from Texas to New England, forcing school closures, road shutdowns and thousands of flight cancellations. The US National Weather Service (NWS) warned that heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain could persist for several days, potentially affecting around 180 million people — more than half of the country’s population.
“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told CBS News.
As of Sunday afternoon, data from PowerOutage.us showed that more than 800,000 households were without electricity, while FlightAware reported over 11,000 cancelled flights nationwide. Emergency responders across multiple states have been stretched as icy roads and extreme cold triggered hundreds of traffic accidents.
Louisiana’s Department of Health confirmed that two men died from hypothermia, while the mayor of Austin, Texas, reported an “exposure-related” death. In Kansas, officials said a woman whose body was found covered in snow may also have succumbed to hypothermia.
Weather-related deaths were additionally reported in Tennessee. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at least five people in the city died on Saturday, although the exact causes of death were still under investigation. “It is a reminder that every year New Yorkers succumb to the cold,” he said.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul urged residents to stay indoors and avoid travel, describing the system as the coldest and most severe winter storm the state has experienced in years.
“A sort of an arctic siege has taken over our state and many other states across the nation,” Hochul said, warning that the “brutal” conditions could bring the longest cold stretch and heaviest snowfall in years. “It is bone-chilling and it is dangerous,” she added.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the state was experiencing more ice and less snow than initially forecast, describing the development as particularly dangerous.
Meteorologists warned that freezing rain poses one of the greatest risks, as it rapidly coats roads, trees and power lines with ice, leading to accidents, outages and infrastructure damage. Officials in states including Virginia and Kentucky reported responding to hundreds of crashes linked to icy conditions.
In Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency, calling it the capital’s largest snowstorm in a decade. Nearly half of US states have issued emergency declarations, and the US Senate postponed a scheduled vote due to the severe weather. Schools across the country have cancelled classes as the storm is expected to continue into Monday.
While northern states such as the Dakotas and Minnesota are accustomed to prolonged cold winters, the extreme temperatures have been unusual for southern states like Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee, where readings are reportedly 15 to 20 degrees Celsius below seasonal averages. Some of these areas could also experience ice accretions of up to an inch from freezing rain.
The storm has also impacted Canada, where heavy snowfall and hundreds of flight cancellations have been reported. Authorities in Ontario expect between 15 and 30 centimetres of snow.
Weather experts said the storm was driven by a disruption of the polar vortex — a ring of strong winds that usually traps cold air over the Arctic. When weakened, the vortex allows frigid air to plunge southwards into the United States, interacting with warmer southern air to form intense storm systems.
Forecasters said the system is expected to push northwards and eastwards, clearing the Canadian maritime region by Tuesday, but leaving behind another surge of dangerously cold air. The extreme cold is forecast to persist into early February.
