A winter storm sweeping through most parts of the United States in recent days has left at least 34 people dead and hundreds of thousands still without power. Extreme low temperatures are expected to continue to grip numerous areas through this weekend, causing transportation disruptions, mass flight cancellations, and widespread school closures.
According to various media reports, snowfall in a 2,100-kilometer stretch from Arkansas to the New England region has exceeded 30 centimeters in various locations, with areas north of Pittsburgh accumulating as much as 50 centimeters of snow. Wind chills are forecasted to bring the feels-like temperature down to as low as minus 31 degrees Celsius.
Official reports from various locations indicate that the death toll from this powerful winter storm has climbed to at least 34, with 9 fatalities reported in New York City alone due to exposure to the cold. The other fatalities occurred in Tennessee (4), Pennsylvania (3), Texas (3), Arkansas (2), Massachusetts (2), and Kansas (1), among other places.
Data from the U.S. power tracking website shows that as of Monday evening, over 560,000 customers across the country were still without electricity, with the majority of outages concentrated in the southern regions. Freezing rain has caused trees and power lines to break in local areas, and power outages have been particularly severe in northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.
The storm has also severely disrupted transportation networks, with flight tracking data showing that as of 4:30 PM on Monday, 5,134 domestic and international flights in and out of the U.S. had been canceled, with over 5,900 flights experiencing delays. Airports in Boston, New York, and Dallas have been the hardest hit by flight cancellations and delays.
The U.S. National Weather Service stated on Monday that while the storm system is drifting from the East Coast towards the Atlantic Ocean, a mass of Arctic cold air from Canada is closely following, and the frigid weather is expected to persist until early February.