Overview
- About 12,000 to 13,000 U.S. flights were canceled across Saturday and Sunday, with major disruptions at hubs including Dallas–Fort Worth, Nashville and Washington National, according to FlightAware and airport officials.
- At least 18 states and Washington, D.C., declared emergencies, with at least nine states activating National Guard units and FEMA staging supplies as the system advances from the Southern Rockies to New England.
- The National Weather Service warned of two severe ice corridors—from Texas into Kentucky and from Georgia into Virginia—where “catastrophic” impacts are possible, alongside widespread snow totals of a foot or more with local amounts near two feet.
- Power outages climbed to roughly 120,000 on Saturday, including around 50,000 each in Texas and Louisiana, as freezing rain and sleet downed trees and power lines across parts of the South.
- Forecasters cautioned that extreme cold will follow the storm, with tens of millions under cold alerts and wind chills well below zero, while officials in major cities such as New York urged residents to stay off roads as snowfall rates reach 1 to 2 inches per hour.