An ice storm brought dangerous conditions to northern Mississippi over the weekend, prompting authorities in Oxford to issue a shelter-in-place order on January 25, 2026. The storm caused extensive damage and left at least one person dead elsewhere in the state.
Rare thundersleet was reported across parts of Texas on January 24, 2026, as a historic winter storm swept across the country, leaving dangerous road conditions in its wake.
Official data from the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center (WPC) confirms widespread snow, sleet, and freezing rain accumulations across large portions of the United States during the January 23–26, 2026, winter storm. Preliminary data show snowfall exceeded 50 cm (20 inches) in parts of New England and the interior Northeast, while ice accretions reached 25 mm (1 inch) across portions of the Carolinas and northern Georgia. The system’s departure early on January 26 ended four days of significant winter weather affecting more than a dozen states.
A major winter storm swept across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. over the weekend, claiming at least 24 lives as of Monday, January 26, 2026. Over a million customers, roughly 2.5 million people, were left without power as snowstorms hit the northern and northeastern regions, while freezing rain and ice storms wreaked havoc in the south. States of emergency have been declared across multiple regions as the storm’s impacts linger.
A potentially historic winter storm associated with the Polar Vortex is forecast to bring heavy snow, freezing rain, and dangerous cold across much of the United States from January 23 to 26, 2026. The system is expected to cause widespread travel disruptions, power outages, and hazardous conditions from Texas to the Northeast, with more than 200 million people under various National Weather Service warnings and watches.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warns of catastrophic ice accumulation from the Southern Plains to the Southeast as a major winter storm develops and tracks northeastward from January 23 to 26, 2026. The storm is forecast to produce widespread freezing rain, heavy snow, and dangerously cold temperatures, threatening critical infrastructure and travel across much of the eastern United States.
Ice storm warnings are in effect for parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia between January 24 and 26, 2026. Ice accumulations of 6 mm to 25 mm (0.25 to 1 inch) and wind gusts up to 30 mph (48 km/h) are forecast across the regions. The combination of freezing rain, sleet, and gusty winds is expected to cause widespread power outages, tree damage, and extremely hazardous travel conditions.
Winter storm warnings and watches have been issued across a broad swath of the United States due to a long-duration winter storm forecast to affect the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley to the Midwest, Great Lakes, Appalachians, and parts of the Southwest.
Extreme cold warnings and watches were issued across large parts of the central and northern United States on Thursday, January 22, 2026, as a deep Arctic air mass spread southward, producing wind chills as low as −48°C (−55°F).
A major long-duration winter storm is forecast to affect large portions of the central and eastern United States starting Friday, January 23, 2026, with confidence increasing in damaging ice accumulations across parts of the South. Heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain are expected from the southern Rockies and Plains into the Mid-South, with the system spreading east into the Mid-Atlantic and New England through the weekend.
