NEED TO KNOW
- More than 800,000 people are without power this weekend as Winter Storm Fern churned across the United States
- The outages spanned from the South up along the East Coast, with precipitation expected to continue into the Northeast on Monday
- Dangerously low temperatures are also expected to continue into next week for much of the country
Hundreds of thousands of people were without power this weekend as a major winter storm moved across much of the United States — canceling flights, scrambling plans and coating states in ice and snow as local officials worked to keep residents safe and warm.
Approximately 875,000 customers were dealing with outages from Texas to West Virginia as Winter Storm Fern has churned across the nation in recent days, moving from the West to the Northeast, according to PowerOutage.us.
With snow and ice still hitting the East Coast, precipitation is expected to continue into Monday, Jan. 26, in some parts of the Northeast, according to ABC News.
Already, more than 4 inches of snow had fallen in Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, Virginia and elsewhere, with freezing rain hitting parts of the South — Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and more.
NBC News reported that weather alerts stretched over 37 states and 190 million people. At least 10,000 flights had been canceled as well, according to the Associated Press.
Low temperatures will persist for many long after the weekend, the National Weather Service warned.
“Extremely cold temperatures will expand across the eastern 2/3 of the country this weekend, with very cold weather continuing through much of next week,” the agency posted on X on Saturday, Jan. 24. “Take precautions to prepare yourself and your pets for this life-threatening cold!”
President Donald Trump called the winter weather “historic” and approved emergency disaster declarations for many states in the South and along the East Coast.
More complete numbers about power and water outages, as well as casualties — if any — were still emerging on Sunday.
Before the storm began, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said that hundreds of thousands of people could “go without electricity and heat for days” as a result of the system.
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AccuWeather meteorologist Emma Belscher also suggested that it will take some time for some locations to see temperatures rise above the freezing point.
“This will prolong impacts,” Belscher said, “as snow and ice will not be quick to melt and can easily refreeze overnight.”
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