DALLAS — Almost 12,000 flights across the U.S. set to take off over the weekend were canceled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc Saturday across much of the country and threatened to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways with dangerous ice.
Roughly 140 million people, or more than 40% of the U.S. population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. The National Weather Service forecast warned of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina. By midday Saturday, a quarter of an inch of ice was reported in parts of southeastern Oklahoma, eastern Texas and portions of Louisiana.
“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.”
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
“Please use these final hours to be prepared, to make sure that you have blankets and warmth and food to make it through this storm,” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Saturday at a news conference. “And every Virginian should stay off the road as of this evening, all day Sunday, and at least into the morning on Monday.”
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had about 48 delays and 75 cancellations Saturday, according to FlightAware, but over 300 flights scheduled for Sunday were already canceled.
At Washington Dulles International Airport, there were 87 delays and 83 cancellations for Saturday, but over 370 canceled Sunday flights. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had it worst with over 800 flights scheduled for Sunday canceled, which was more than 90% of its flights for the day. DCA had about 100 delays and 131 cancellations Saturday.
The Texas Department of Transportation on Saturday posted images of snow-covered highways in the suburbs north of Dallas. Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight moved toward the central part of the state on Saturday. By mid-morning Saturday, ice had formed on roads and bridges in a third of Mississippi’s counties.
Little Rock, Arkansas, was covered with sleet and snow Saturday morning, giving Chris Plank doubts about whether he would be able to make a five-hour drive to Dallas for work on Sunday. While some snow was a yearly event, he could only recall three ice storms in the previous 20 years that he had lived in Little Rock, and that potential ice concerned him the most.
“All of the power lines are above ground, so it doesn’t take very much to end up in the dark,” Plank said Saturday morning.
Forecasters say the damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
More than 119,000 outages were reported across the country Saturday morning, including about 51,000 in Texas, 20,000 in Louisiana and nearly 11,000 in New Mexico, according to poweroutage.us.
All Saturday flights were canceled at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, and all Sunday morning flights also were called off, as officials aimed to restart service Sunday afternoon at Oklahoma’s biggest airport.
As of 1 p.m., more than 3,700 flights were canceled Saturday across the country, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Almost 8,000 flights were called off for Sunday. Among the hardest hit airports were Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Nashville International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
“Please, if you can avoid it, do not drive, do not travel, do not do anything that can potentially place you or your loved ones in danger,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday. “Instead, I urge every New Yorker who can to put a warm sweater on, turn on the TV, watch ‘Mission Impossible’ for the 10th time, above all to stay inside.”
Bracing for biggest ice storm in a decade
Officials in Georgia advised people in the state’s northern regions to get off the roads by sundown Saturday and be prepared to stay put for at least 48 hours.
Will Lanxton, the senior state meteorologist, said Georgia could get “perhaps the biggest ice storm we have expected in more than a decade” followed by unusually cold temperatures.
“Ice is a whole different ballgame than snow,” Lanxton said. “Ice, you can’t do anything with. You can’t drive on it. It’s much more likely to bring down power lines and trees.”
Crews began treating highways with brine after midnight Saturday, with 1,800 workers on 12-hour shifts, said Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry.
“We’re going to do what we can to keep the ice from sticking to the roads,” McMurry said. “This is going to be a challenge.
Frigid temperatures and ice
Utility companies braced for power outages because ice-coated trees and power lines can keep falling long after a storm has passed.
The Midwest saw windchills as low as minus 40 F, meaning that frostbite could set in within 10 minutes. The minus 36 F reading in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on Saturday morning was the coldest in almost 30 years.
In Bismarck, North Dakota, where the windchill was minus 41, Colin Cross was bundled up Friday in long johns, two long-sleeve shirts, a jacket, hat, hood, gloves and boots as he cleaned out an empty unit for the apartment complex where he works.
“I’ve been here awhile, and my brain stopped working,” Cross said.
Workers from The Orange Tent Project, a Chicago nonprofit that provides cold weather tents and other supplies to unhoused individuals throughout the city, went out to check on those who did not or could not seek shelter.
“Seeing the forecasted weather, I knew we had to come out and do this today,” said CEO Morgan McLuckie.
Mardi Gras and classes canceled, Opry performs without audience
Churches moved Sunday services online, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, decided to hold its Saturday night radio performance without fans. Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana were canceled or rescheduled.
Schools superintendents in Philadelphia and Houston announced that schools would be closed Monday.
Some universities in the South canceled classes for Monday, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Mississippi’s main campus in Oxford.
Government prepares to respond
President Donald Trump said via social media on Friday that his administration was coordinating with state and local officials, and “FEMA is fully prepared to respond.”
Nine states have requested emergency declarations, according to a FEMA briefing document released Saturday. The declarations can unlock federal emergency resources. Trump on Friday approved emergency declarations for South Carolina and Virginia, and requests from Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia were still pending as of Saturday morning.
“I think there are two parts of this storm that make it unique. One is just a broad expanse of spatial coverage of this event ... You’ve got 2,000 miles of country that’s being impacted by the storm with snow, sleet, and freezing rain,” said Josh Weiss, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. “The other part of this storm that’s really impressive is what’s going to happen right afterward. We’re looking at extreme cold, record cold.”
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said. Expecting ice and hazardous conditions, officials said all schools in Houston will be closed on Monday.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X. Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 12 degrees Fahreinheit.
More than 95,000 power outages were reported across the country Saturday morning, about 36,000 of them in Texas and 10,000 more in Virginia. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted. Temperatures reached minus 29 degrees Fahreinheit. just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told residents on the social media platform X that the state Department of Transportation was pretreating the roads and told residents, “Stay home if possible.”
More than 3,600 flights were canceled Saturday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. More than 6,200 flights were called off for Sunday.
Angela Exstrom was supposed to fly back to Omaha, Nebraska, from a trip in Mexico, but she learned her Saturday flight out of Houston had been canceled. So instead, she is going back via Los Angeles.
“If you live in the Midwest and travel in the winter, stuff can happen,” she said.
Frigid temperatures and ice
Utility companies braced for power outages because ice-coated trees and power lines can keep falling long after a storm has passed.
The Midwest saw wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that frostbite could set in within 10 minutes.
In Bismarck, North Dakota, where the wind chill was minus 41, Colin Cross was bundled up Friday in long johns, two long-sleeve shirts, a jacket, hat, hood, gloves and boots as he cleaned out an empty unit for the apartment complex where he works.
“I’ve been here awhile and my brain stopped working,” Cross said.
The storm has been a popular topic of discussion for days at Saint Paul Mini Market in Baltimore.
“Every single person that walks in talks about the storm,” said owner Ayaz Ahmed.
“Somehow, this time around, they did a good job letting people know that here’s a storm coming their way, and everybody knows about the storm, but how to deal with that is another thing,” Ahmed said.
Government prepares to respond
The federal government put nearly 30 search and rescue teams on standby. Officials had more than 7 million meals, 600,000 blankets and 300 generators placed throughout the area the storm was expected to cross, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
President Donald Trump said via social media on Friday that his administration was coordinating with state and local officials and “FEMA is fully prepared to respond.” With the storm on the way, Trump on Saturday approved federal disaster assistance for Virginia.
After the storm passes, it will take a while to thaw out. Ice can add hundreds of pounds to power lines and branches and make them more susceptible to snapping, especially if it’s windy.
In at least 11 Southern states from Texas to Virginia, a majority of homes are heated by electricity, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A severe cold snap five years ago took down much of the power grid in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Abbott vowed that will not happen again, and utility companies were bringing in thousands of employees to help keep the lights on.
Church, Mardi Gras and classes canceled
Churches moved Sunday services online, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, decided to hold its Saturday night radio performance without fans. Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana were canceled or rescheduled.
Philadelphia announced schools would be closed Monday. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. told students, “It’s also appropriate to have one or two very safe snowball fights.”
Some universities in the South canceled classes for Monday, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Mississippi’s main campus in Oxford.
At the University of Georgia, in Athens, sophomore Eden England stayed on campus to ride things out with friends, even as the school encouraged students to leave dorms and go home because of concerns about losing power.
“I’d rather be with my friends,” England said, “kind of struggling together if anything happens.”
Banner reporter Sara Ruberg contributed to this story.
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