From its origens over the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 21, and throughout its impacts on the central and eastern United States from Jan 24–26, 2026, NOAA satellites closely monitored a massive winter storm that swept across the United States, and brought heavy snow, ice, and dangerous cold.
The storm’s impacts were widespread. Extreme Cold Warnings stretched as far south as the Mexican border while Freeze Watches extended into northern Florida. Much of the Southeast was also under Ice Storm Warnings, and farther north, Winter Storm Warnings covered much of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
By Monday, Jan. 26, snow covered more than half of the contiguous U.S. and extreme cold warnings, with dangerously cold temperatures were expected to persist for days. About 800,000 customers remained without power, with the most significant electrical impacts seen in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Parts of the Midwest, South, and Mid-Atlantic also remained powerless due to downed trees and powerlines.
A U.S. map showing watches and warnings in effect on Jan. 25, 2025, during the winter storm. Shades of blue represent cold and extreme cold warnings, magenta indicates ice warnings, and pink and purple show winter storm warnings and advisories. [Credit: NOAA’s National Weather Service, weather.gov]
The storm impacted more than 20 states from New Mexico to Maine, dumping more than a foot of snow in some locations. Heavy snow blanketed parts of the Ohio Valley and Northeast, while sleet and freezing rain caused severe icing across portions of the Southeast and southern Appalachians. Hazardous travel, widespread power outages, and major disruptions to air and ground transit followed. More than one million customers initially lost power nationwide according to PowerOutage.com.
Behind the storm, a surge of Arctic air plunged much of the central and eastern U.S. into extreme cold. Subzero temperatures spread across the Plains, Midwest, and Northeast, with record-breaking cold reaching as far south as Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley. Wind chills fell into the minus 20s and 30s with temperatures running 10 to 40 Fahrenheit degrees below average.
NOAA satellites played a critical role in forecasting and tracking the winter storm. The low Earth orbit Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites captured high-resolution global imagery as well as temperature and moisture measurements throughout the atmosphere. This data fed the numerical prediction models that helped accurately forecast the storm.
NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) tracked the low pressure system off the West Coast on Jan. 21-22 that produced the massive storm. The GOES East and GOES West satellites monitored clouds and atmospheric conditions in near-real time, allowing forecasters to track rapidly-changing weather conditions, determine how fast wind speeds would be at various levels of the atmosphere, identify when the storm was becoming severe, and predict where the storm would move next.