AUSTIN, Texas — A massive winter storm bulldozed its way across the southern and central United States on Monday, leaving millions of people without power amid freezing temperatures, sending vehicles crashing into one another on ice-glazed highways and bringing blizzard-like conditions to places where snowfall is usually the news from elsewhere. The storm was notable for its enormous reach — 150 million people were under storm warnings — and for a particularly perilous element it brought nearly everywhere: ice. It left a treacherous varnish on roads across a midsection of the country, including places where driving on ice is a rarity. Snow blanketed Gulf of Mexico beaches and people went ice sledding on the roads of southern Louisiana. Alabama was warned of brutal ice storms in some places and of possible tornado outbreaks in others.

Source: New York Times February 15, 2021 22:49 UTC