What to Know About America’s Colossal Winter Storm

AFP/APP

Washington: A deep freeze is gripping large swaths of the United States after a monster winter storm killed dozens of people from the Northeast to the Deep South, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands, and sent air travel into chaos.

Another Arctic blast expected this weekend could deliver record-low temperatures and trigger another major storm, even as municipalities continue digging out from deep piles of snow and ice.

Here is what to know:

Dozens Dead

The storm has been linked to at least 31 deaths, according to a compilation of state government and local media reports. Causes include hypothermia, as well as accidents involving traffic, sledding, all-terrain vehicles, and snowplows.

The death toll is expected to rise after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that at least 10 people had died after being found outdoors, though it has yet to be confirmed whether all cases were due to hypothermia.

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In Maine, seven people were killed when a small plane crashed while attempting to take off during a snowstorm in Bangor, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

States including Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana were hit hard by power outages, with more than 550,000 customers left without electricity by midday Tuesday, according to tracking site Poweroutage.com.

Air travel was also severely disrupted. More than 9,000 flights were canceled on Sunday, the highest single-day total since the Covid-19 pandemic, as the storm paralyzed transportation nationwide.

Heavy Snowfall

The heaviest snowfall—31 inches—was recorded in Bonito Falls, New Mexico, followed closely by East Napanoch in upstate New York, where 30 inches fell, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service’s snowfall reports tool.

Many of the hardest-hit regions were in the southern United States, where authorities are generally less accustomed—and often less equipped—to manage severe winter weather.

More to Come

The National Weather Service has warned that much of the northern half of the country will remain below freezing through February 1, with another Arctic air mass expected to bring “the coldest temperatures seen in several years for some places and the longest duration of cold in decades.”

Meanwhile, a potentially significant coastal winter storm could move south from Canada along the East Coast, spreading widespread precipitation as a low-pressure system collides with frigid air. Forecasters say it remains too early to determine the storm’s exact track or whether precipitation will fall as rain or snow.

Climate Change

Although it may seem counterintuitive, a growing body of research suggests climate change may be contributing to disruptions in the polar vortex—a vast region of cold, low-pressure air that typically circulates high above the Arctic.

Scientists advancing this theory argue that uneven Arctic warming across Europe and Asia can amplify atmospheric waves, increasing the likelihood that the polar vortex weakens and spills southward over North America.

However, the science remains contested, and researchers caution that natural climate variability also plays a significant role.