A massive winter storm slammed into the US on Saturday, shutting down over 4,000 flights and knocking out power for more than 210,000 people.
Winter Storm: 4,000 Flights Cancelled and Power Knocked Out
The storm stretched all the way to Texas and threatened to dump heavy snow on the eastern states. Forecasters said the eastern two-thirds of the country would get hammered by snow, sleet, and freezing rain, with bone-chilling temperatures sticking around into the week.
President Donald Trump called the storms “historic” and signed off on federal emergency disaster declarations for South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
🚨⚡️The strongest snowstorm in a decade is hitting the United States: power outages affecting 130,000 homes, 12,000 flights canceled, and a state of emergency declared in 21 states, with residents urged to stay home and store shelves running empty. pic.twitter.com/Hoc6mjFNo4
— RussiaNews 🇷🇺 (@mog_russEN) January 25, 2026
Trump Declares Emergency
“We’re staying in touch with all the states in the path of the storm. Stay safe and stay warm,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Seventeen states plus D.C. have declared weather emergencies, according to Homeland Security. “We have tens of thousands without power in southern states,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “Utility crews are working as fast as they can to get it back.”
Winter Storm Batters Eastern and Southern US
By early Sunday, power outages kept climbing. Around 217,000 customers still had no electricity, mostly in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.com.
The Department of Energy stepped in Saturday, letting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas fire up backup generators at data centers and other big facilities to help keep the lights on.
🚨 Extreme winter weather is hitting parts of the U.S.
Heavy snow and ice are expected across Washington D.C., New York, and surrounding regions.
This storm could disrupt daily life in a big way. ❄️ pic.twitter.com/LKsvs2rbmg— rain.id (@RaindropsAcu) January 25, 2026
The National Weather Service warned this storm would be unusually big and long-lasting, especially in the Southeast, with heavy ice likely to cause “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts.”
Forecasters expected record-low temps and dangerous wind chills to sweep into the Great Plains by Monday.
Severe Winter Storm Forces Emergencies
Flight cancellations piled up. By Saturday night, more than 4,000 US flights had been scrapped, and over 9,400 Sunday flights got axed too, according to FlightAware.
Major airlines told passengers to brace for sudden changes. Delta kept adjusting schedules, canceling flights in Atlanta and cities like Boston and New York, and moving crews from northern hubs to help with de-icing down south.
JetBlue had already cancelled about 1,000 flights through Monday and said more could follow. United said it was preemptively canceling flights in areas expecting the worst.
Grid operators spent Saturday scrambling to prevent rolling blackouts. Dominion Energy, which manages a huge network of data centres in Virginia, warned that if the ice forecasts hold up, this storm could go down as one of their biggest.
At a news conference, Governor Kristi Noem urged everyone to get ready. “It’s going to be very, very cold,” she said. “Stock up on fuel and food. We’ll get through this together.”
