A prolonged winter storm knocked out power across large parts of the country, canceled thousands of flights, and placed tens of millions under cold-weather warnings as dangerous conditions persisted into Monday.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Nearly 800,000 customers were without electricity on Jan. 26 as a widespread and long-lasting winter storm spread snow, sleet, and freezing rain across much of the United States, leaving tens of millions of people under cold-weather warnings and advisories.
Data from outage-tracking website Poweroutage.us showed roughly 775,000 customers without power across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia as of Monday morning. Tennessee was the hardest-hit state, reporting about 250,000 outages, while Louisiana and Mississippi each recorded well over 100,000.
The storm brought heavy sleet and freezing rain across much of the South, coating trees, roads, and power infrastructure with thick layers of ice. Video footage captured by storm chaser Reed Timmer showed extensive ice accumulation in Oxford, Mississippi, including downed trees and visibly iced-over power lines, contributing to widespread service disruptions.
While parts of the Northeast saw significant snowfall — with some areas receiving nearly two feet — relatively few power outages were reported in that region, according to the Poweroutage.us map.
Air travel was heavily affected nationwide. More than 4,800 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled Monday morning, with more than 2,400 delays reported, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
Behind the storm system, bitter cold settled across much of the country. As of Monday, the National Weather Service had issued extreme cold warnings or cold weather advisories across most of the Plains, South, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, affecting tens of millions of people. “Frigid temperatures will impact the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. this week, and numerous record lows are forecast,” the agency said, warning that subzero lows were expected nearly every morning from the Northern Plains through the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that the extended cold stretch would bring “brutal” and “dangerous” conditions. “We are anticipating the longest cold stretch and the highest snow totals the state has seen in several years,” she said.
The storm’s impact peaked over the weekend. At one point Sunday morning, about 213 million people were under some form of winter weather warning. Roughly 12,000 flights were canceled Sunday, with nearly 20,000 delayed, and more than 1 million customers were without electricity at one stage, according to reports at the time.
The Department of Energy issued two emergency orders during the storm to bolster power production and grid reliability, including one focused on Texas and another providing additional resources to PJM Interconnection, which supplies electricity to large portions of the East Coast.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump signed emergency declarations for roughly a dozen states affected by the storm, including North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Authorities also reported storm-related deaths. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at least five people found dead outdoors during the temperature plunge were under investigation to determine cause. In Louisiana, two men died from hypothermia in Caddo Parish, according to the state health department. Additional deaths linked to the storm were reported in other states as dangerous cold and icy conditions persisted.
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