Climate News

Winter storm leaves dozens dead and hundreds of thousands without power across the US

A huge winter storm brought snow and ice across a stretch of more than 1,300 miles from Arkansas to New England, followed by bitter cold. PBS NewsHour, carrying an AP report on 27 January, said at least 42 deaths had been reported in states hit by the severe cold, and that more than 480,000 homes and businesses were still without power, over half of them in Tennessee and Mississippi. The National Weather Service warned of "the longest duration of cold in several decades".

NPR reported that more than 1 million customers lost power across the South at the storm's peak, and that over 12,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday, which data firm Cirium said was the highest since the pandemic. More than 20 inches of snow fell in Massachusetts.

"We're New Englanders. We're tough. But we have to take this storm seriously," — Gov. Maura Healey, via NPR

How each outlet framed it

• PBS NewsHour — the human cost of the lingering cold, from Nashville's outages to warnings about frostbite in Kentucky.
• NPR — the infrastructure strain: power lines, flights and governors' warnings.
• Gulf News — the overview from the UAE, naming the storm "Fern" and counting at least 15 states of emergency.

Where the numbers differ: the death toll grew as reports came in. NPR cited at least 25 deaths on 26 January, Gulf News at least 28, and PBS/AP at least 42 a day later. Outage figures also vary, from about 1 million at the peak to 480,000 still out on 27 January.