After a massive winter storm dumped more snow on Monday in the Northeast and kept portions of the South covered in ice, many Americans had to deal with another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity. In states where there was a severe cold, at least thirty deaths were reported.
Over a foot of deep snow covered a 2,100-kilometer stretch from Arkansas to New England on Monday, causing traffic jams, aircraft cancellations, and widespread school closures. (26 January). According to the National Weather Service, regions north of Pittsburgh had wind chills as low as negative 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 degrees Celsius) and up to 20 inches of snow from late Monday, January 26, until Tuesday, January 27, 2026.
Two-thirds of the United States were suffering from a severe cold that was not going away. with areas that are currently blanketed with snow and ice, a new surge of artic air is predicted to maintain freezing temperatures, according to the weather service on Monday. Additionally, forecasters warned that areas of the East Coast would be struck by another winter storm this weekend.
The number of tragic sledding incidents that claimed the lives of teens in Arkansas and Texas, two individuals who were driven over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, and a lady whose body was discovered covered in snow by police using bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas pub were all part of the growing death toll. Over the cold weekend, eight people were discovered dead outside in New York City, according to officials.
More than 5 lakh power outages
There were still over 560,000 power outages across the country on Monday night, January 26. The majority of them occurred in the South, when cold rainstorms over the weekend broke power lines and tree limbs, causing severe outages in sections of Tennessee and northern Mississippi. Authorities cautioned that the restoration of power might take days.
Following Mississippi’s biggest ice storm since 1994, officials hurried to deliver cots, blankets, bottled water, and generators to warming stations in severely affected areas. Governor Tate Reeves reported on Monday night that there was significant damage to at least 14 residences, one business, and 20 public highways.
Due to the dangerous ice covering its Oxford campus, the University of Mississippi, where the majority of students hunkered down without power on Monday, January 26, canceled classes for the entire week. Robyn Tannehill, the mayor of Oxford, posted on social media that “it looks like a tornado went down every street” because to the numerous fallen trees, limbs, and power wires.
Real estate agent Tim Phillips’ new garage was damaged, a glass was broken, and his Oxford home’s electricity was cut off by two large, falling tree branches. Phillips remarked, “It’s just one of those things that you try to prepare for, but this one was just unreal.”
More than 12,000 flight delays or cancellations
According to flight tracker, there were over 12,000 flight delays or cancellations in the United States on Monday, January 26. According to aviation analytics company Cirium, Sunday saw the largest number of cancellations since the COVID-19 epidemic, with 45% of U.S. flights cancelled.
Due to the storm’s devastation of key hubs like Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which left aircraft and flight crews stranded, the effects went much beyond the storm’s actual path. New England was expected to see more mild to moderate snowfall through Monday night.
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Neighborhoods in New York City recorded 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 cm) of snow on the city’s snowiest day in years. About 500,000 pupils were instructed to sign up for online classes on Monday even though public schools were closed. Snow days were eliminated in the biggest public school system in the country after remote learning became popular during the coronavirus outbreak.
In the meanwhile, the storm left behind severe cold. On Monday, January 26, communities in the Midwest, South, and Northeast woke up to below-freezing temperatures. The average low temperature for the whole Lower 48 states was predicted to be minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C), the lowest since January 2014.
Many hotels sold out overnight
Thousands of homes and businesses in the Nashville, Tennessee, area had their energy restored on Monday, January 26. However, over 146,000 others were still without power on Monday night, January 26, following the night’s below-freezing temperatures. Overnight, residents fleeing cold, dark houses filled many motels to capacity.
To make sure his family had a functional freezer to store pumped breast milk for their 6-month-old daughter, Alex Murray reserved a hotel room in Nashville. Murray intended to stay at the hotel until Wednesday since he anticipated a lengthy wait until his home’s power was restored.
Murray stated on Monday, “I am aware that many people might not be able to find a place, pay for a place or anything like that, or even travel.” “So, we were extremely lucky.” A 28-year-old teacher was discovered dead in the snow by police in Emporia, Kansas, after she was observed leaving a club without her phone and coat.
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Snowplows backed into two persons in Dayton, Ohio, and Norwood, Massachusetts, according to the police. Texas and Arkansas both reported two fatalities. Eight persons were discovered outside in New York City when temperatures dropped between Saturday and Monday morning; the cause of their deaths is still being looked into.
According to officials, there were four fatalities in Tennessee, three in Louisiana and Pennsylvania, two in Mississippi, and one each in New Jersey, South Carolina, and Kentucky.
