(Washington) Millions of Americans face a polar cold wave on Monday which worsens the consequences of a storm that caused the death of at least 21 people and deprived more than 800,000 homes of electricity.
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In the Great Lakes region in the northern United States, residents woke up to extreme temperatures, below -20°C, and up to -30° in areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin (North) according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
These temperatures are expected to drop further in the coming days under the action of an arctic air mass, particularly in regions in the center of the country, where the feeling could reach -45°C.
Across the country, heavy snowfall – more than 30 centimeters in around 20 US states – led to power outages.
PHOTO AMID FARAHI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
View of the Capitol under the snow in Washington, January 25, 2026.
According to the specialist site PowerOutage.com, some 820,000 customers were still without power Monday morning, mainly in the southern United States, where ice brought down power lines.
Nearly 250,000 people are affected in Tennessee and more than 150,000 in Mississippi.
“The power outages could last for several more days as authorities struggle to recover (from the storm). Most of these regions have neither the means nor the necessary resources to clear up after such events, because they are not used to it,” meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP.
Considered by some specialists as one of the worst winter episodes in recent decades in the United States, the storm is accompanied by ice accumulations with potentially “catastrophic” consequences, according to the NWS.
Polar vortex
These extreme conditions led to the death of at least 21 people, according to a count made using local American media.
In Texas, authorities confirmed three deaths, including that of a 16-year-old girl killed in a sledding accident. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and one in Iowa during a collision.
PHOTO JOSEPH PREZIOSO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Residents clear snow from a residential street in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, January 26, 2026.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said five people were found dead outdoors over the weekend.
“While we do not yet know the causes of their deaths, nothing speaks more strongly to the danger of extreme cold and the vulnerability of many residents, especially homeless New Yorkers,” he said on Sunday.
A state of emergency was declared in around twenty states as well as in the capital, Washington, and means of transport were severely disrupted.
Several large airports, in Washington, Philadelphia and New York, were almost at a standstill, while more than 19,000 flights have been canceled since Saturday and thousands more have been delayed, according to the FlightAware website.
The storm is linked to a deformation of the polar vortex, an air mass usually circulating above the North Pole, but which has stretched towards the south.
Scientists believe that the increasing frequency of these vortex disruptions could be linked to climate change, although the debate is not settled and natural variability also plays a role.
A self-confessed climate skeptic, Donald Trump nevertheless used the storm as an excuse to once again express his skepticism on his Truth Social platform, in a message partly in capital letters: “Could the environmental insurgents please explain to me: what happened to global warming? “.
