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U.S. braces for more freezing cold as winter storm leaves at least 26 dead

Published: 27 Jan. 2026, 09:26

A lineman works to restore power in Oxford, Miss. on Jan. 26, 2026, following a weekend ice storm. [AP/YONHAP]

Many in the United States faced another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity after a colossal winter storm heaped more snow Monday on the Northeast and kept parts of the South coated in ice. At least 26 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold.

Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 1,300-mile swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered wide school closures Monday. The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh got up to 20 inches of snow and faced wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit late Monday into Tuesday.

The bitter cold afflicting two-thirds of the United States wasn't going away. The weather service said Monday that a fresh influx of Arctic air is expected to sustain freezing temperatures in places already covered in snow and ice. And forecasters said it's possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend.

A rising death toll included two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow by police with bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas bar. In New York City, officials said eight people were found dead outdoors in the course of the frigid weekend.

Shoppers brave cold weather as they walk in the parking lot of a store during a winter storm on Jan. 24, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. [AP/YONHAP]

There were still more than 690,000 power outages in the nation Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.com. Most of them were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.

Parts of Mississippi were reeling in the aftermath of the state's worst ice storm since 1994. Officials scrambled Monday to get cots, blankets, bottled water and generators to warming stations in hard-hit areas.

The University of Mississippi, where most students hunkered down without power Monday, canceled classes for the entire week as its Oxford campus remained coated in treacherous ice. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said on social media that so many trees, limbs and power lines had fallen that “it looks like a tornado went down every street.”

A pair of burly, falling tree branches damaged real estate agent Tim Phillips' new garage, broke a window and cut off power to his home in Oxford. He said half of his neighbors had homes or vehicles damaged.

“It’s just one of those things that you try to prepare for,” Phillips said, “but this one was just unreal.”

Jim Matthess, left, and Morgan McLuckie with the Orange Tent Project nonprofit set up a propane heater for an unhoused individual during dangerously cold temperatures on Jan. 23, 2026, in Chicago. [AP/YONHAP]

The United States had more than 8,000 flight delays and cancellations nationwide Monday, according to flight tracker flightaware.com. On Sunday, 45 percent of U.S. flights got cancelled, making it the highest day for cancellations since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

More light to moderate snow was forecast in New England through Monday evening.

New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches of snow. Though public schools shut down, roughly 500,000 students were told to log in for online lessons Monday. Snow days off from school melted away in New York, the nation's largest public school system, after remote learning gained traction during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, bitter cold followed in the storm's wake. Communities across the Midwest, South and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather. The entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature of minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C) since January 2014.

Island commuters are bundled against the cold as they disembark from a ferry on a 1-degree Fahrenheit morning on Jan. 24, 2026, in Portland, Maine. [AP/YONHAP]

In the Nashville, Tennessee, area, electricity returned for thousands of homes and businesses Monday, while more than 170,000 others awoke bundled up in powerless homes after subfreezing temperatures overnight. Many hotels were sold out overnight to residents escaping dark and frigid homes.

Alex Murray booked a Nashville hotel room for his family to ensure they had a working freezer to preserve pumped breast milk to feed their 6-month-old daughter. Anticipating a long wait until power gets restored at his home, Murray planned to extend their hotel stay through Wednesday.

“I know there’s many people that may not be able to find a place or pay for a place or anything like that, or even travel,” Murray said Monday. “So, we were really fortunate.”

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said at least eight people were found dead outside as temperatures plunged between Saturday and Monday morning, though the cause of their deaths remained under investigation.

In Emporia, Kansas, police searching with bloodhounds found a 28-year-old teacher dead and covered in snow. Police said she was last seen leaving a bar without her coat and phone.

Police said snowplows backed into two people who died in Norwood, Massachusetts, and Dayton, Ohio. And authorities said two teenagers, one in Arkansas and another in Texas, were killed in sledding accidents.

Officials reported four deaths in Tennessee, three deaths apiece in Louisiana and Pennsylvania; two deaths in Mississippi; and one in New Jersey.

AP