After a powerful winter storm dumped heavy snow, sleet and ice across wide swaths of the U.S., millions of people were facing new dangers Monday: Perilously cold temperatures and widespread power outages that forecasters and local governments warned could last for days.

The storm dumped more than 1 foot of snow in at least 19 states, from New Mexico to Maine, according to preliminary figures from the National Weather Service. At least 21 deaths were reported across the country, including several from hypothermia and medical emergencies associated with clearing snow. At least nine other deaths were being investigated to determine whether they were linked to the storm.

The worst of the weather may not be over. More than 70 million people remained under an extreme cold warning Monday, with below zero temperatures expected to sweep from the Northern Plains to the Northeast and freezing temperatures expected to reach as far south as the Gulf Coast throughout the week. The threat posed by the bitter cold has been intensified by outages that left about 700,000 homes and businesses without power Monday, particularly in the South, according to poweroutage.com. Freezing rain hit one Mississippi county especially hard.

Local officials, scrambling to restore service, warned that recovery efforts could take days. In Nashville, Tennessee, where the main electric agency said it saw the largest number of simultaneous power outages in its history, the mayor said trees were still falling and knocking out power that had already been restored. The city’s emergency management director urged residents to plan for being out of power “for the long haul.”

Here’s What We’re Covering:

— Flight cancellations: Thousands of flights across dozens of airports remained canceled and delayed Monday morning. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that he expected travel to return to normal levels by Wednesday.

— New York City: The storm forced students to switch to remote learning and canceled some bus and train routes in New Jersey.

— Another storm? After a computer model began hinting that a classic nor’easter could strike the East Coast next weekend, meteorologists sought to tamp down speculation.

— Snow in Canada: The storm also brought near-record snowfall to parts of Canada. Toronto Pearson International Airport recorded about 18 inches by late Sunday night.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Anushka Patil/Janice Chung
c. 2026 The New York Times Company