Records are falling across the central U.S. on Monday, with snow in Houston and extremely dangerous low temperatures across the plains states.
The big picture: "More than 50 million people could see temperatures dip below zero during the next several days as the record-setting deep freeze envelops the country," WashPost reports.
- Millions are without power in Texas and neighboring states.
- A group of utilities across 14 states called for rolling outages because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted, AP reports.
- Nearly 3 million Texans lack power as of this afternoon.
Between the lines: The Gulf States are used to hurricanes, not polar vortexes. The entire state of Texas has been placed under a disaster declaration.
The bottom line: "Grand Forks, N.D., hadn't reported a temperature above zero since Feb. 6 and probably won't until at least Monday afternoon," the Post noted.