A powerful winter storm with more than 140 million Americans in its crosshairs started sweeping across much of the US on Saturday, packing heavy snow and sleet as well as freezing rain and causing widespread power outages.
Snowfall was already being reported on Saturday morning across parts of the plains, the south and the midwest, including in areas of Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and Missouri.
The severe cold weather created unsafe driving conditions on many roads throughout the midwest and southern US as ice coated streets and highways and electric grid operators stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts.
Three people were found dead on New York City streets amid freezing temperatures on Saturday afternoon. A 67-year-old man was found on a sidewalk at about 7.45am on Third Avenue in Manhattan, according to police. An additional two bodies – a man in his 30s and a woman in her 60s – were found separately in Brooklyn about two hours after the first discovery. All three died as a result of “weather-related circumstances”, according to sources who spoke with NBC News New York.
Ice and sleet hit northern Texas overnight and moved toward the central part of the state on Saturday. Ice formed on roads and bridges in a third of Mississippi’s counties. Dominion Energy said it is preparing for widespread power outages in Virginia and North Carolina caused by the storm.
As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 14,000 flights through Monday into, within or out of the US had been canceled as the storm began its track, according to FlightAware.com. The storm brought severe cold and ice to regions unaccustomed to such severe conditions. About 140 million people, or more than 40% of the US population, were under winter storm warnings from New Mexico to New England.
By midday Saturday, a quarter of an inch of ice was reported in parts of south-eastern Oklahoma, eastern Texas and portions of Louisiana.
The X account of Chicago & Midwest Storm Chasers reported “many cars are off the road or stuck along the [south-west] side of [interstate] 30 near Little Rock” amid significant ice and snow.
And Arkansas meteorologist Zachary Hall wrote Saturday on X that interstate 40 was “at a standstill … due to accidents”.
“These conditions will *NOT* improve with more snow, sleet and freezing rain likely tonight and tomorrow too,” Hall wrote.
“What really makes this storm unique is, just following this storm, it’s just going to get so cold,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts.”
The weather agency warned on Saturday morning that the powerful winter storm was “underway” with “precipitation already impacting” south-central regions of the country.
Forecasters have said that more than 160 million Americans are expected to be affected by the winter storm. Weather officials warn that widespread, extended power outages were possible – along with major travel disruptions, extensive tree damage and dangerous conditions.
Heavy snow is expected across a large area from the southern Rockies and plains through the mid-Atlantic and into the north-east through the weekend, the NWS said. The NWS added that snowfall totals were likely to exceed 12in across the Ohio valley, mid-Atlantic and north-east.
Widespread freezing rain and sleet are forecast for the southern plains, the lower Mississippi valley, the Tennessee valley and the south-east.
The NWS warned of “catastrophic ice accumulation” from the southern plains to the mid-Atlantic and the south-east. It added that the catastrophic impacts are expected where freezing rain amounts exceed a half inch, with totals of more than 1in possible in parts of northern Louisiana, central and northern Mississippi, southern Tennessee and the southern Appalachians.
In the wake of the storm, the agency said, communities from the southern plains to the north-east can expect to contend with “bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills”.
On Friday, the agency said that power outages “are certain for some, especially in areas where the heaviest ice will accumulate on trees and powerlines”.
The service urged Americans on Friday to “take this storm seriously”.
As of Saturday afternoon, more than 130,000 customers, including about 61,600 in Texas, were without power nationwide, according to PowerOutage.us.
Donald Trump on Friday night said on his Truth Social platform that he had been “briefed on the Record Cold Wave and Historic Winter Storm that will be hitting much of the United States this weekend”.
“The Trump Administration is coordinating with State and Local Officials,” the president said. He declared the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) “fully prepared to respond” less than a month after reports that his administration had drafted plans to eliminate thousands of the entity’s staff.
“Stay Safe and Stay Warm!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Before the storm, at least 16 states had declared states of emergency, along with Washington DC.
Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, warned on Saturday morning that the winter storm was “moving through” the state “with areas expecting up to 15 inches of snow, ice accumulation and dangerously cold temperatures”.
He urged residents to avoid travel and to prepare.
New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, meanwhile, said that the city was forecast to get from 3in to 16in of snow this weekend.