U.S. snow storm: At least 25 deaths reported as thousands shiver without electricity

Severe U.S. snowstorm claims at least 25 lives, leaves thousands without power, and disrupts travel across the Northeast and South.

More snow piled up across the US Northeast on Monday (January 26, 2026) under the tail end of a colossal winter storm that brought lingering misery to parts of the South, where freezing rain left hundreds of thousands shivering without electricity. At least 25 deaths were reported amid the severe weather.

Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 2,100-kilometre swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, cancelled flights and triggered wide school closures on Monday (January 26).

The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh got up to 20 inches of snow and faced wind chills as low as minus 31 degrees Celsius late Monday (January 26) into Tuesday (January 27).

A rising death toll included two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow by police with bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas bar. In New York City, officials said eight people were found dead outdoors in the course of the frigid weekend.

There were more than 750,000 power outages in the nation by Monday (January 26) midafternoon, according to poweroutage.com. Most of them were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.

Work crews use ploughs to push snow and ice off the road on President George Bush turnpike in Plano, Texas on January 26, 2026 | Photo Credit: AP