At least three people have died from suspected hypothermia in Washington, D.C., as officials in Virginia and Maryland also investigate deaths after the recent winter storm and lingering frigid temperatures.
D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz said officials were awaiting a final determination by the medical examiner’s office as to the cause of the three suspected hypothermia deaths. Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Health reported five storm-related deaths in the past week, and Maryland’s health department is set to release a report Wednesday that may include some data on deaths related to the storm.
After the Jan. 25 winter storm dumped several inches of snow and ice, the D.C. area experienced its longest stretch of freezing weather in more than 35 years, with temperatures below 32 degrees for nine days in a row. Officials warned that such cold temperatures would bring significant safety risks, especially for older and unhoused populations.
Asked Monday whether the city could attribute any deaths to the recent cold snap, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said, “Sadly, we think the answer is yes.” At least two and likely all of the people who died were unhoused, Bowser said.
Cliff Mitchell, director of environmental health at the Maryland Department of Health, said the cold is dangerous in a few ways.
Nerve tissue in extremities — fingers, toes, tips of noses — can physically freeze, causing frostnip or frostbite, and as the core body temperature decreases, people can experience irregular or rapid heartbeats and may feel confused, sleepy or off-balance.
“The human body is designed to work within a relatively narrow temperature range, and if it gets outside of that temperature range, the chemical and biological processes that make the body work start to not work,” he said.
In D.C., the suspected hypothermia deaths being investigated by the medical examiner’s office include: an unidentified man who was found on Friday and brought to a hospital, where he later died; a 61-year-old man found on Saturday in an alley off 9th Street NW, near the Convention Center; and a 68-year-old woman was found Sunday morning in the 1700 block of Columbia Road NW, near a Safeway, and taken to a hospital.
The medical examiner’s office said one person died of hypothermia in the District in all of 2025.
D.C. Department of Human Services Director Rachel Pierre said the city had extended its outreach to unhoused people during evenings and weekends and was operating shelter hotlines 24-7. For those people who do not want to enter shelters, she said, the city was providing warming buses in areas where people congregate outside.
As of last week, Pierre said the city had seen about 100 additional people in shelters — which she took as a sign that the city’s outreach had been successful in encouraging more people to come inside.
“Outreach work continues as temperatures remain dangerously cold,” the human services department said in a statement. “When individuals choose not to come in, our teams do all they can to change their minds and provide warming and comfort items to help keep them safe.”
In Virginia, the medical examiner determined five recent deaths were storm-related, said Cameron Webb, commissioner of the Department of Health. But it may be several weeks before officials know the full extent of how many people died due to the storm.
Webb said the state treated the storm as not just a severe-weather event, but also a significant health event. They advised residents to prepare kits with medication and pulled federal data on patients who use medical devices that rely on electricity to determine who could be at risk in a power outage.
More people also visited emergency departments and urgent care centers in Virginia in the days following the storm. Average daily visits for slips, trips and falls more than doubled in the week following the storm, compared to the previous weeks, state data shows.
“Much older and much younger people have a harder time regulating temperatures, so special care needs to be taken,” he said. “But really prolonged exposure for anybody can be really harmful.”
Last week, Fairfax police reported at least three cold-related deaths since the storm. On Jan. 25, a man in his 70s collapsed while clearing snow outside his home in Kings Park West. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Jan. 28, police received a call to check on a person who lived in a tent in Springfield. The 50-year-old man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The same day police responded to a report of a woman who appeared to be deceased in her backyard. The 89-year-old woman was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced.
“These incidents serve as a stark reminder of how dangerous winter conditions can be,” the police department wrote in a news release. “Winter weather can be unforgiving, but taking time to slow down, check on one another, and prioritize safety can help prevent tragedies.”
Maryland reported 27 cold-related deaths in the state during 2025-2026 winter season as of Jan. 24. A new report, which could reflect deaths associated with the latest storm and bitter-cold temperatures, is expected to be released Wednesday afternoon.
Troy Swanda, president and CEO of the nonprofit So Others Might Eat (SOME), said the unhoused community is particularly vulnerable to the threat of cold weather. He said that the organization has been giving out blankets, hand warmers and sleeping bags for those who don’t want to go into shelters.
He said it’s tough to see the toll that a lack of housing take on people at any time. The cold weather exasperates those struggles and the risk involved with sleeping outside, he said.
“There’s no doubt about that unhoused are at the most risk at a time like this,” Swanda said. “And the cold snap being as long as it has, is obviously a hugely negative impact for people that SOME serves.”
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