Greater than a dozen states sound the alarm, declaring emergencies or urging individuals to remain residence.
Printed On 24 Jan 2026
Greater than 8,000 flights set to take off over the weekend have been cancelled as a major storm bears down throughout the USA, threatening widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
A minimum of 3,400 flights had been delayed or cancelled on Saturday, in response to the flight monitoring web site FlightAware, and greater than 5,000 had been referred to as off for Sunday.
Really useful Tales
listing of 4 gadgetsfinish of listing
Roughly 140 million individuals from New Mexico to New England had been underneath a winter storm warning, as forecasters say harm, particularly in areas pounded by ice, may rival that of a hurricane.
Snow fell over components of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on Friday forward of a winter storm anticipated to converge with bitter Arctic chilly and engulf a lot of the US over the weekend.
“This can be a imply storm,” Jacob Asherman, a meteorologist on the US Climate Prediction Middle in Maryland, informed Reuters information company. He mentioned it was the largest to this point this season when it comes to depth and scope.
Life-threatening wind-chill readings had plunged to beneath minus 45 levels Celsius (minus 50 levels Fahrenheit) within the Dakotas and Minnesota. The meteorologist warned that publicity to such chilly with out correct clothes “can result in hypothermia very, in a short time”.
The worst was predicted for components of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, the place ice as much as an inch thick was prone to coat tree limbs, energy strains and roadways, Asherman mentioned.
Governors in additional than a dozen states sounded the alarm, declaring emergencies or urging individuals to remain residence. Texas Governor Greg Abbott informed residents on X that the state Division of Transportation was pretreating the roads and urged residents to “keep residence if doable”.
Utility firms braced for energy outages as a result of ice-coated bushes and energy strains can hold falling lengthy after a storm has handed.
President Donald Trump mentioned by way of social media on Friday that his administration was coordinating with state and native officers and that the Federal Emergency Administration Company was “absolutely ready to reply”.
The storm represents the first main check for New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office simply weeks in the past.
He informed native information station NY1 on Friday that the town’s sanitation workforce would remodel into “the nation’s largest snow-fighting operation” prematurely of the heavy snowfall anticipated on Sunday.
