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Swathes of the United States were hit by a colossal winter storm over the weekend, leaving at least 10 people dead across the country, and prompting warnings to stay off the roads, mass flight cancelations and power outages.
Freezing conditions persisted into Monday, as officials cautioned that an Arctic air mass behind the system would see temperatures fall dangerously low for days, prolonging disruptions to daily life.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) told Americans to expect more of the same weather conditions into Monday morning.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said five people were found dead over the weekend in freezing temperatures. While he did not confirm the deaths were weather-related, he told reporters, “there is no more powerful reminder of the danger of extreme cold.”
In Texas, authorities confirmed three deaths, including a 16-year-old girl killed in a sledging accident.
Two people died in Louisiana from hypothermia, the southern state’s health department said.
In Tennessee, more than 300,000 residential and commercial customers were without electricity, while Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia — where such storms are less common — each had over 100,000 outages.
At least 20 states and the US capital Washington have declared states of emergency. Federal offices have been preemptively closed for Monday.
Several major airports in Washington, Philadelphia and New York had nearly all flights cancelled for the day.
Tracking site Flightaware.com showed more than 19,000 flights into and out of the country had been scrapped since Saturday.
Overnight Sunday, the entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature, -12.3C, since January 2014.
Record warmth in Florida was the only thing keeping that average from going even colder, said former US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, who calculates national averages based on National Weather Service data.
Additional sources • AFP, AP