Arctic Blast Hits Central US; One Dead, 2 Million Households Without Power

On Monday, the "unprecedented" winter storm began its attack on the country, killing at least one person in Louisiana, leaving millions in Texas without electricity, and causing travel disruption across a large swath of the United States due to heavy snow and ice. The storm across the central USA was followed by bitter, record-smashing cold.

On Sunday, a coast-to-coast winter storm swept from Oregon and Washington to the Southeast regions of the US.

Snowmageddon

A part of a freezing weather pattern, it created historic low temperatures in Minnesota. The cold left a 100-vehicle traffic pileup in Texas, and that is now creating unsafe conditions in most of the nation owing to heavy snowfall, dangerous ice, and dangerously low temperatures.

Early Monday, the National Weather Service said that there were at least 150 million Americans under ice or constant weather advisories. There were hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Trucks fell off highways, and vehicles piled up on ice-coated roads. Officials advised people to prepare themselves as the storm began to escalate.

"Yesterday was the time to brace for the storm," the National Weather Service in Texas said in an ominous alert released Sunday.

The storm's scope had already stretched over the country by Sunday. In Seattle, just over 11 inches of snow fell, and a record low temperature in one area of Minnesota was set at minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was forecasted to bring the kind of prolonged cold and snowy weather seldom seen in areas where winter seems to come as something of a light tap, as the storm advanced into Texas.

In a news conference, Greg Abbott of Texas said that the snowstorm may result in the most snow the state will ever garner in recorded Texan history. He declared a disaster alert for all 254 counties on Friday.

Loss of Power

By early Monday, power shortages were plaguing a variety of states. According to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities around the country, at least two million consumers have lost power in Texas. According to the operator of the state power grid, which was facing record demand as wind chills were predicted to hit minus 10 degrees, some of the outages were purposely enforced and could last during the morning.

Elsewhere, approximately 300,000 consumers were still left without power in Oregon and 150,000 in Virginia.

Officials advised residents around the storm's route to run their last errands and make final arrangements by Sunday morning. In Nashville, people were advised by forecasters to avoid the roads if possible and to "this morning, drive the way you did this when you took your newborn home from the hospital."

The Texas Department of Transportation warned drivers over the next few days to brace for "a marathon of historically cold air" that could make driving hazardous.

Precaution

The risks soon became evident: as many as 25 drivers, including some eighteen-wheelers, were involved in accidents west of Odessa, Texas.

In Oklahoma, the authorities said a pileup northeast of Oklahoma City led to many semi-trucks on fire. A Livestream video captured footage of toppled vehicles and smoke from them billowing.

"For the next few days, everyone in this state should have some specific priorities as to not repeat what happened in Fort Worth," Mr. Abbott told reporters, referring to the Interstate 35 pileup on Thursday affecting more than 100 cars that resulted in six deaths and scores of injuries.

Michael J. Ventrice, a meteorological scientist with IBM, said the weather resulted from a heavy high-pressure system that came from the Arctic Circle, taking in some of the lowest temperatures that areas of the world have seen in years.

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