A powerful winter storm spread a paralyzing mix of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Ohio Valley and mid-South to New England on Sunday, compounded by bitter, Arctic cold gripping much of the US east of the Rockies.
Winter storm warnings were posted for most of the eastern third of the United States covering 118 million people, as the deep freeze strained energy supplies in some areas, and the National Weather Service predicted widespread, prolonged travel disruptions.
An estimated 157 million Americans were warned to bundle up against cold ranging from sub-zero temperatures along the Canadian border to below-freezing as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.
The Arctic blast was accompanied by gusty conditions that sent wind-chill conditions a measure of how cold it feels based on the rate of heat loss from the body plunging as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern Plains.
Deep snow, thick ice
Some of the heaviest snowfall, up to one foot or more since the storm developed on Friday, was measured on Sunday in parts of Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had mobilized National Guard troops in New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley to assist with the state’s emergency storm response.
A worker clears snow from a White House driveway as a major winter storm spreads across a large swath of the United States, in Washington, D.C., US, January 25, 2026. — Reuters
The onslaught of snow, ice and winds hit air travel especially hard, with major carriers forced to cancel more than 11,000 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday, according to an industry tracking service FlightAware.com.
Ronald Reagan National Airport, located in northern Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington, was effectively closed altogether.
Airports serving other major metropolitan areas, including New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina, had at least 80% of their Sunday flights canceled, FlightAware data showed.
Power outages were widespread across the South, where freezing rain deposited layers of ice up to an inch thick, toppling tree limbs and transmission lines.
More than 1 million homes and businesses in eight states from Texas to the Carolinas were without electricity at the height of the storm on Sunday, according to utility data posted online. Tennessee bore the greatest brunt of energy cuts, accounting for about a third of all the outages. More than 800,000 electricity customers remained without power as of 9:29 p.m. EST (0229 GMT), according to PowerOutage.us.
Federal, state governments declare emergencies
In parts of the mid-Atlantic, heavy snow early in the day gave way to sleet and freezing rain, adding to treacherous driving conditions and making it more difficult for street crews to safely clear road surfaces.
