Recently a dangerous winter storm has swept through most of the continental U.S. and a large part of Canada, bringing widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain, which is a dangerous phenomenon where cooled rain droplets freeze instantly on surfaces, could last for days, and the storm could affect around 180 million Americans—more than half the population.  So far the storm is confirmed to have killed at least 85 people and cut the power to thousands of homes.

Most of the deaths came from the south, where people were less prepared for the cold. From what we know, at least two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and other deaths linked to the storm have been reported in Texas, Tennessee, and Kansas. The Northern states aren’t doing much better, however, as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are under states of emergency as their governors warned people not to travel due to poor road conditions.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the conditions stretching from Texas to New England are “life threatening.” As such, schools and roads across the country have been closed, and flights have been canceled.  As of January 25, more than 800,000 households had lost power, according to poweroutage.us. Meanwhile, more than 11,000 flights were cancelled, FlightAware reported. The NYC subway system operated as usual; however, NJ Transit was closed up until Monday.

Instead of a full cancellation, NYC had remote classes on Monday, and after Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that, he was soon spotted helping shovel after a car got stuck in the snow. He joked, “No task is too big and no job is too small.”

For some places like D.C., this was the biggest snowstorm they had seen in decades; however, in the Tri-State area, it did not break any all-time records. It still did break records for its date, being the most snow those areas have seen at this point in January, at as much as 14″ in some areas.