HOUSTON: A massive winter storm dumped snow and freezing rain on New Mexico and Texas on Saturday as it spread across the United States towards the northeast, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation chaos and bone-chilling cold.

Shoppers stripped supermarket shelves as the National Weather Service forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly “catastrophic” ice accumulations from freezing rain.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that up to 240 million Americans could be affected by the storm. At least 16 states and the US capital Washington declared states of emergency.

“Take this storm seriously, folks,” the National Weather Service said on X, predicting an “astonishingly long swath” of snowfall from New Mexico to Maine.

More than 3,400 flights in and out of the United States were canceled on Saturday alone, and more than 1,100 others were delayed, according to tracker FlightAware.

In Dallas, freezing rain pelted the city and temperatures plummeted to 21F (-6C).

Houston Mayor John Whitmire urged residents of the country’s fourth most populous city to hunker down by late Saturday: “Be where you need to be for the next 72 hours.”

State officials vowed that the Texas power grid was in better shape than five years ago, when it failed during a deadly winter storm and left millions without power.

Snow also hit Oklahoma and Arkansas, where some spots already recorded six inches (15 centimeters) on the ground, the NWS said.

After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system was expected to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states before a frigid air mass settles in.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2026