US snowstorm leaves 850,000 without power, forces 10,000 flight cancellations
Last updated: January 25, 2026 | 20:54
A group of men try to help a stuck motorist in the snow while the multi-state Winter Storm Fern hits the metro area of Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday. Reuters
A person walks down a snow-covered residential street in Missouri. Reuters
People walk in the snow near Grand Central Station in New York City . AFP
People walk with luggage during snowfall in Times Square in New York City on Sunday. Reuters
Snow plow trucks spread salt on the road in Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
More than 850,000 customers in the US as far west as New Mexico were without electricity and over 10,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday during a monster winter storm that paralysed eastern and southern states with heavy snow and ice.
As snow, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures swept into the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday, the number of power outages continued to rise.
As of 10:47am EST (1547 GMT) on Sunday, more than 850,000 US customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with at least 290,000 in Tennessee and over 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.
More than 15,400 flights have been cancelled across the US since Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Over 10,200 of those were scheduled for Sunday. Over 4,000 flights were canceled on Saturday.
A flight information display shows the cancelled flights out of Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington. AFP
Washington, DC's Ronald Reagan National Airport said airlines had canceled all flights at the airport on Sunday.
Delta Air Lines on Sunday said that it intended to operate on a reduced schedule "subject to real-time frozen precipitation and afternoon storm conditions."
A southwest flight takes off at Nasvhille International Airport as snow falls in Nashville on Saturday. AFP
The airline had adjusted its schedule on Saturday, with additional cancellations in the morning for Atlanta and along the East Coast, including in Boston and New York City, and said it would move experts from cold-weather hubs to support de-icing and baggage teams at several southern airports.
The National Weather Service's latest forecast for Sunday through Monday morning calls for heavy snow from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, including up to 18 inches in New England. Much of the Southeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic are expected to get rain and freezing rain.
People walk in Times Square as snow falls in New York City on Sunday. AFP
Forecasters predicted "bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills" from the southern plains to the Northeast in the wake of the storm, bringing "prolonged hazardous travel and infrastructure impacts."
FEDERAL, STATE GOVERNMENTS DECLARE EMERGENCIES
Calling the storms "historic," President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
Vehicles drive on I-24 (left) and side streets despite icy conditions during a snowstorm in Nashville. AFP
"We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions.
"It’s going to be very, very cold," Noem said. "So we'd encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together."
A flight information display shows the cancelled flights due to weather conditions out of LaGuardia airport in New York. AFP
The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorising the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other major facilities, aiming to limit blackouts in the state.
On Sunday, the DOE issued an emergency order to authorise grid operator PJM Interconnection to run "specified resources" in the mid-Atlantic region, regardless of limits due to state laws or environmental permits. US electric grid operators on Saturday stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts.
Dominion Energy, whose Virginia operations include the largest collection of data centers in the world, said if its ice forecast held, the winter event could be among the largest to affect the company.
