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A dangerous winter storm has swept across the US, leaving at least seven people dead and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Schools and roads across the country have been closed and flights have been cancelled as “life threatening” conditions stretched from Texas to New England, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

At least two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and other deaths linked to the storm have been reported in Texas, Tennessee and Kansas.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 800,000 households had lost power, according to poweroutage.us. Meanwhile, more than 11,000 flights were cancelled, FlightAware reported.

Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain, which is a dangerous phenomenon where cooled rain droplets freeze instantly on surfaces, could last for days, and the storm could affect around 180 million Americans – more than half the population.

“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the BBC’s US media partner CBS News.

Louisiana’s Department of Health confirmed on Sunday that two men had died of hypothermia.

The mayor of Austin, Texas, said there had been an “exposure-related” death.

Officials in Kansas said a woman, whose body was found on Sunday afternoon covered in snow, “may have succumbed to hypothermia”.

Weather-related deaths of three people have also been reported in Tennessee.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote in a post on X that at least five people in the city had died on Saturday but added their cause of death was yet to be determined.

He said, however, “It is a reminder that every year New Yorkers succumb to the cold”.

New York state Governor Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay inside and off roads.

“This is certainly the coldest weather we’ve seen, the coldest winter storm we’ve seen in years,” she said on Sunday.

“A sort of an arctic siege has taken over our state and many other states across the nation.”

Hochul said the “brutal” conditions were expected to bring the longest cold stretch and highest snow falls in years.

“It is bone chilling and it is dangerous,” she said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday that the state was seeing more ice and less snow than was originally predicted.

“That is not good news for Kentucky,” he said.

Weather experts have warned that one of the biggest dangers of the storm is ice, which has the potential to damage trees, down power lines and make roads unsafe.

In Virginia and Kentucky, authorities have responded to hundreds of crashes on roads.

Canadians have also been hit with heavy snow and hundreds of cancelled flights.

Officials estimate that there will be 15-30cm (5-11in) of snowfall in the province of Ontario.

Nearly half the states have declared emergencies, and schools across the country are already canceling classes in anticipation of the storm continuing into Monday. The US Senate has also scrapped a scheduled vote for Monday evening.

In declaring an emergency in the nation’s capital, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said: “We’re experiencing the biggest snowstorm in a decade in DC this weekend.”

While places in the north such as the Dakotas and Minnesota are used to below- freezing temperatures in winter, it is unusual to see such extreme cold in states like Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee, where temperatures are around 15-20C below the seasonal average.

Those states could also see ice accretions of around an inch caused by freezing rain.

The polar vortex – a ring of strong westerly winds that form above the Arctic every winter containing a pool of very cold air – led to the powerful storm, according to weather experts.

When the winds are strong, they stay in place, however when the winds weaken, the vortex loops further south and cold air plunges toward the US. As the cold air meets mild air in the south, the air rises and storm fronts form.

In this case, the winter storm is pushing northwards and eastwards, clearing the Canadian maritime by Tuesday but leaving more cold air in its wake. It is forecast to stay dangerously cold into the start of February.

Some experts contend climate change could influence the behaviour of the polar vortex due to changes in sea surfaces temperatures in our warming world.

Protests continued in Minneapolis and other US cities on Sunday over the fatal shooting by immigration agents of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said America was at an “inflection point” and repeated calls for US President Donald Trump to remove federal immigration agents from the city.

Trump meanwhile called for the governor to “turn over all Criminal Illegal Aliens” incarcerated in state prisons for deportation.

Meanwhile Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told the BBC that state officers were blocked from accessing the scene of the shooting by federal agents, despite securing a search warrant.

He added that all levels of law enforcement in Minnesota have been working with federal law enforcement “for several years”, and that the unfolding situation in Minnesota was hampering agencies’ ability to continue such investigations.

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino accused O’Hara and Frey of trying to derail federal law enforcement operations.

Trump signaled in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday that he might be willing to eventually withdraw ICE agents from the Minneapolis area, but did not provide a time frame.

He told the outlet: “At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job.”

In the interview, the president added that his administration was “reviewing everything” about Pretti’s death and said that it “will come out with a determination”.

Lawmakers continue to be divided over the shooting of Pretti, as well as his second Amendment right to bear arms.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was shot because he was “brandishing” a gun. Local authorities say the gun was legally registered, he was not brandishing it, and he was shot after the gun was removed.

The Trump administration has described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”.

Pretti’s family issued a statement in response to the comment saying “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting”.

His family said he had no interaction with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets. According to AP, court records show he had no criminal record.

“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” his family said in the statement.

Backlash against the Trump administration’s crackdown is growing, including from within the Republican party.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt told CNN that people were watching fellow Americans being shot on television and that “federal tactics and accountability” had become a growing concern for voters.

Asked whether ICE should be removed from Minnesota, Stitt said that the president needed to answer that question, but he was “getting bad advice right now”.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said the Minneapolis shooting was “incredibly disturbing” and “the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.”

Democrats have responded by threatening to block a key government financing package if it contains funds for the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, raising the prospect of another government shutdown.

Few Minnesotans the BBC spoke to said they supported ICE operations, but several polls suggest about half of voters nationwide support President Trump’s efforts to deport those living in the US illegally.

Other polls indicate voters are split on how Trump is carrying out that crackdown on undocumented immigrants. One conducted by Politico shortly after Renee Good’s death this month suggested about half of Americans felt the mass deportation campaign was too aggressive.

Meanwhile on Sunday evening Trump demanded in a post on Truth Social that Walz and Frey, as well as “EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor in the United States” must “formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence”.

He listed a series of requests that he said were “rooted in common sense”, most notably petitioning US Congress to end sanctuary cities, which he alleged were the cause of “all these problems”.

The term ‘sanctuary city’ is commonly used to describe places in the US that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities.

Trump’s posts followed remarks from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, where she condemned Walz as wanting chaos, and encouraging “left-wing agitators to stalk and record federal officers in the middle of lawful operations”.

Sunday saw hundreds of protesters in Minneapolis brave freezing conditions to protest the shooting, as armed and masked agents used tear gas and stun grenades against them.

Protests have spread to other US cities, with people seen holding signs saying “Justice for Alex” and “abolish ICE” in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The chief executives of more than 60 Minnesota-based businesses, including 3M, Best Buy, Target, and UnitedHealth Group have also signed an open letter calling for “an immediate de-escalation of tensions” and for local and federal officials “to work together to find real solutions”.

Federal agents shot and killed Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, and videos have since emerged showing a scuffle between Border Patrol agents and Pretti just before the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the agents fired in self-defence after Pretti, who they say had a handgun, resisted their attempts to disarm him.

Eyewitnesses, local officials and the victim’s family have challenged that account, pointing out he had a phone in his hand, not a weapon.

O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, told the BBC that Pretti was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations.

It is legal in Minnesota to carry a handgun in public if you have a permit.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) – which is typically aligned with Trump – has joined other US gun lobby groups in calling for a “full investigation” into the killing of Pretti.

In a statement, it said: “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalisations and demonising law-abiding citizens.”

Bovino said earlier that at the time of the shooting, ICE agents were seeking Jose Huerta Chuma during a “targeted” operation, and that Chuma’s criminal history includes domestic assault, intentional infliction of bodily harm and disorderly conduct.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) has since rebutted those claims, and said that Huerta had never been in Minnesota DOC custody and public records reflected only misdemeanor-level traffic offenses from more than a decade ago.

The latest shooting follows weeks of tensions between the Minnesota authorities, federal agents and protesters who have taken to the streets to observe the agents during their anti-immigration raids.

Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot dead Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident who was taking part in such an observation.

In a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, Good’s family law firm Romanucci & Blandin urged all Americans to “trust their own eyes as they interpret the horrific video” of Pretti’s shooting.

Their statement went on: “It is time for a hard reset. ICE agents can leave Minneapolis. The residents of Minnesota cannot. We call for a complete and immediate end to the ICE invasion of this beautiful American city.”

Trump’s crackdown in Minneapolis was launched in December after some Somali immigrants were convicted in a massive fraud of state welfare programmes. The state is home to the largest community of Somali immigrants in the US.

ICE agents have the power to stop, detain and arrest people they suspect of being in the US illegally.