A winter storm brought snow and ice. Check out the before and after videos.
Here’s a look at some locations across the country before and after the winter storm that brought snow, sleet, and ice to multiple states.
Power outages are expected to last several days in some areas, and frigid temperatures continued Tuesday across the central and eastern United States, raising concerns for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity.
According to the National Weather Service, tens of millions of Americans were on alert for bitter cold as a blast of arctic air kept temperatures below freezing. AccuWeather forecasters warned that the arctic air above the region is expected to remain bitterly cold in areas already covered in snow and ice, creating life-threatening conditions.
The National Weather Prediction Center noted that the cold air is expected to continue in the eastern United States into early February.
“New York City has recorded the longest period of subfreezing temperatures on record, with the potential for widespread impacts to transportation, energy use, and business operations,” AccuWeather said in its advisory.
According to AccuWeather, the impact on infrastructure will continue as Arctic air keeps homes cold and temperatures are expected to drop into the teens or single digits in some areas. Nighttime lows in the Southeast will dip below freezing throughout the week, while temperatures further north are expected to range from single digits to below zero, AccuWeather said.
Over the weekend, a deadly winter storm dumped sleet, freezing rain and snow across much of the country, disrupting travel and causing widespread power outages. There were about 1 million power outages across the United States on Sunday, according to USA TODAY’s power outage tracking information.
At least 38 deaths have been reported in the aftermath of the superstorm from Texas to Massachusetts. Many of the deaths are believed to be due to hypothermia, exposure, or activities related to snow removal.
As of the National Weather Service’s snowfall report on Sunday night or Monday morning, here are the snowfall amounts in cities across the country affected by the weekend storm:
New York City: Central Park 11.4 inches
Boston: 15 inches
Cincinnati, Ohio: 9.2 inches
Washington DC: 9 inches
Lubbock, Texas: 7 inches
-Melina Khan
According to the National Weather Service, large areas of the United States were under some kind of warning, advisory or warning related to frigid temperatures Tuesday morning.
More than 70 million people are under extreme cold warnings in some or all of the states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
Millions more were under cold weather advisories, freeze watches, and freeze warnings.
The Weather Prediction Center said life-threatening cold air and wind chills will affect the eastern United States through the remainder of this week. Record-breaking low temperatures are expected across parts of the South.
“Even without wind, temperatures in the single digits to below freezing can pose life-threatening risks such as hypothermia and frostbite,” the Japan Weather Prediction Center said. “Keep your body covered if you are outdoors, protect your pets and animals from the cold, and continue to reduce pipe freezing.”
Temperatures that are “well below normal” are expected to continue for several days, and forecasters also warned that more cold weather is expected on Friday. From Friday into Saturday, arctic air will once again spread from the plains to the East Coast and Southeast, extending as far as Florida, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
“This could be the coldest temperatures in recent years in some places, and the longest period of cold weather in decades,” the Weather Prediction Center added.
At least 38 people were killed in the storm, which brought subzero temperatures and heavy snow to dozens of states. At least 15 of the deaths were attributed to hypothermia, several of which occurred while shoveling or clearing snow.
The dangerous situation has resulted in at least 38 deaths in 14 states, including one each in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and New Jersey. Two each in Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Mississippi. three each in Pennsylvania and Louisiana; six in Texas; five in Tennessee; and nine in New York.
Texas’ Bonham Independent School District announced Monday that three elementary school students have died. They died on an icy pond, News 4 San Antonio reported, citing the fire department.
Click here for details.
– Carissa Wadick, Dinah Boyles Pulver, Thao Nguyen
On Monday night, the U.S. Department of Energy issued two emergency orders authorizing the “deployment of backup power generation resources to alleviate power outages in the Mid-Atlantic Coast and the Carolinas” in response to the storm.
The order directs Duke Energy and PJM Interconnection to deploy backup power generation resources at data centers and other major facilities, according to a news release. Orders are valid Monday through Saturday.
“This order will help PJM and Duke respond to extreme temperatures and storm damage across the Mid-Atlantic Coast and Carolinas, reducing costs for Americans in the days following a storm,” the news release states.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power on Tuesday as severe cold weather gripped much of the country.
Follow us for updates on which parts of the country have lost power.
The Weather Prediction Center has warned that the likelihood of another severe winter storm is increasing. Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, said computer models are showing signs of a potential storm that could move through the East Coast by the weekend of Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
But for now, “it’s impossible to tell where the storm will form, where the precipitation will fall, and what type of precipitation it will be,” Santorelli said.
Santorelli said frigid temperatures are expected to hit the country for much of this week, and the storm could worsen an already dangerous situation.
contribution: Dinah Boyles Pulver; Reuters
