Jan 24, 2026 - Energy & Climate

10,000 flights canceled due to winter storm forecast

Lauren Floyd

Bus drives across snowy road with nearby building that has windows trimmed with Christmas lights — Snow falls during a winter storm in Kansas City, Missouri, on Jan. 24, 2026. Photo: Clayton Steward/Bloomberg

About 10,000 flights have been canceled for the weekend as U.S. cities begin to see snow and ice from what is forecast to be a "catastrophic" winter storm.

The big picture: A sprawling, long-duration storm is forecast to dump more than a foot of snow from the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast through Monday, with travel grinding to a halt in broad swaths of the U.S.

Areas from the Southern Plains through the Southeast face significant to potentially "catastrophic" ice accumulations — over an inch in some areas — the National Weather Service warned in a forecast discussion Saturday.
Conditions raise the risk of long-lasting power outages, "extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions."

Zoom in: Flight Aware, which tallied the airline cancellations, also noted thousands of delays "within, into or out of" the U.S. as well.

State of play: President Trump has already approved emergency declarations for Virginia and South Carolina, he said Saturday on Truth Social.

Go deeper: How to prepare for "rare," "dangerous" ice expected from this weekend's storm

Editor's note: This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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10,000 flights canceled due to winter storm forecast

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