US Braces for More Freezing Cold

It's the coldest day for the Lower 48 in 12 years
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 26, 2026 7:30 PM CST
US Braces for More Freezing Cold
People sled at Philadelphia Art Museum steps by the Rocky statue during a winter storm in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Many in the US 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 29 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold.

  • Deep snow. 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 AP reports.

  • Cold isn't going away. The bitter cold afflicting two-thirds of the US 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.
  • Deaths. 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.
  • Power outages. 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.

  • Mississippi's worst ice storm in decades. 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."
  • Worst day for flight delays since COVID. The US had more than 8,000 flight delays and cancellations nationwide Monday, according to flight tracker flightaware.com. On Sunday, 45% of US flights got canceled, making it the highest day for cancellations since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
  • Snowiest NYC day in years. 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.
  • Coldest day in 12 years for the lower 48. 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 since January 2014.

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