Winter storm hits US, claiming four lives

The first winter storm of 2025 has proved to be both deadly and disruptive, claiming at least four lives, closing roads across the Great Plains.

The storm left thousands without power, and dumping record amounts of snow before moving eastward toward the heavily populated cities along the East Coast, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media. 

Initially, it followed a typical west-to-east low-pressure pattern, but it quickly proved to be a major snow producer in the Rocky Mountains, helping draw frigid air all the way down to Dallas. 

Parts of Kansas and Missouri were hit with the heaviest snowfall in over a decade, with Kansas City, Missouri, last receiving 10 inches or more back in 1993. The Kansas City area recorded multiple snow measurements of 14 inches or more, including a 14.5-inch total in Sugar Creek, Missouri, according to the National Weather Service. In Missouri, authorities urged drivers to stay off the roads as they closed highways affected by snow, ice, and poor visibility.

In Washington, D.C., officials announced that most nonemergency federal employees should stay home for the day. Many school districts across the storm's path canceled in-person classes. Nearly 230,000 customers in the Plains, Midwest, South, and mid-Atlantic were without power, with the highest number—57,881—reported in Virginia. 

The storm also claimed several lives, including Everett Carter, 61, a public works employee in Jackson County, Missouri, who was fatally injured while clearing snow. Two others, Nathaniel Boyd, 24, from Wichita, Kansas, and Whitney Almond, 26, from Clearwater, Kansas, died in a weather-related crash in southwest Wichita, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol. A man, whose identity has not been confirmed, was found dead on January 7 morning in Houston, likely from the extreme cold, according to the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County.

A state of emergency was declared in seven US states due to a winter storm caused by the intrusion of cold Arctic air deep into the continent.

Blizzards, accompanied by heavy snowfall, are expected in the region, with snow accumulations reaching up to 35 centimetres. Residents in several states have been advised to stay indoors. Meteorologists have described this storm as the strongest of the past decade.

As a result, 1,700 flights have been cancelled, hundreds of schools have been closed, and many roads have been blocked, including those in Washington.

By Naila Huseynova