Overview
- More than 200 million people are under winter weather alerts across 35 states, with at least 18 states and Washington, D.C., declaring emergencies and nine activating National Guards.
- Over 12,000 flights were canceled for Saturday and Sunday, including a full shutdown of Saturday departures in Oklahoma City and hundreds of cancellations at major hubs such as Dallas–Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte.
- About 120,000 customers reported outages by Saturday afternoon, concentrated in Texas and Louisiana, as freezing rain downed trees and lines and officials warned of additional failures.
- Forecasts point to 1 to 2 feet of snow in parts of the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England—Philadelphia 8–14 inches, New York City 10–14, Boston potentially in the 12–20 range—while 0.5 to 1 inch of ice threatens swaths from Texas through the Carolinas and Virginia.
- Extreme cold warnings cover more than 43 million people, with subzero wind chills expected next week that will slow cleanup and complicate restoration efforts.