As of Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Montana reports 97,666 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 120 new cases reported in the last day: 31 in Gallatin County, 18 in Yellowstone County, 14 in Flathead County, 13 in Cascade County, and more new cases in 15 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 2,666. Statewide, 4,461 people have been hospitalized. Currently, 96 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Gallatin and Lewis & Clark Counties. 1,331 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 487,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 27,800,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Millions of Americans reeling from a deadly storm and massive power outages are about to get walloped by more winter weather. Already, about 2,000 records for low temperatures have been shattered this past week. On Tuesday alone, at least 20 cities suffered their coldest weather in history. Many more new records are expected this week. Seattle reported more than 11 inches of snow over the weekend, the most since January 1972. And parts of Wyoming got hit with more than 4 feet of snow in just a few days. Dangerous wind chills have been recorded in Colorado and Kansas. Wind chills ranging from 42 degrees below zero near Yuma, Colorado, to 25 below near Norton, Kansas, were reported. Arctic air is as far south as Houston after several inches of snow fell through north Texas over the weekend. The storm produced a 6-inch snowfall in Oklahoma City, with drifts of 2 to 4 feet. More than 6 inches of snow has fallen from East Texas to Ohio, with some areas picking up more than a foot. Oklahoma City has gone a record five days without climbing over 20 degrees. That record will likely stretch until Thursday, or nine days.

Officials are warning that there will be significant travel disruption in both the snow and ice areas with concern for further extended power outages for areas already (experiencing) power outages. It’s devastating news for millions of Americans still shivering without power after this week’s deadly storm paralyzed states not accustomed to deep frigid weather. Plunging temperatures have frozen or overworked power sources, leaving millions of people in the dark. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 4 million households across more than a dozen states didn’t have power. The vast majority of those outages are in Texas. In Houston, Texas, two people, one a child, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a car being used for heat. At least 15 people have died in weather-related vehicle crashes since the cold temperatures set in. In Oklahoma alone, 123 people were hospitalized Monday with weather-related injuries. And in North Carolina, at least three people were killed and at least ten injured when a tornado shredded parts of Brunswick County Monday night.

Montana should know by the end of April if it’s getting a second U.S. House district, but the detailed numbers needed to draw the would-be district won’t be known until much later. COVID-19 setbacks mean population data from the census previously expected as early as Thursday won’t come until Sept. 30 at the latest. A delay would put Montana’s 2022 U.S. House candidates in the position of running for office without knowing exactly what the district might look like. Montana is no stranger to lawsuits over U.S. Census population counts. The state sued the federal government after losing its second House seat in the 1990 Census, arguing its population had been under-counted, particularly on the state’s seven American Indian reservations. In 2020, the population count was interrupted by COVID-19. The U.S. Census Bureau suspended the count from March through May because of the pandemic. When the count began again, the cutoff date was uncertain, eventually wrapping up in October. On reservations like Fort Peck, severely sickened by COVID-19, bans on travel prevented enumerators from going door to door until the final days of the count.