Spaghetti, toilet paper freeze solid in US deep freeze as storm kills 7

A powerful winter storm has swept across the United States, killing at least seven people, cutting power to over 800,000 homes and businesses, and creating bizarre viral videos of instantly frozen food.

The storm named Fern brought historic low temperatures from the Midwest to the South and Northeast as of January 25. A social media experiment by former meteorologist Jennifer McDermed showed a plate of spaghetti freezing solid almost instantly at minus 29 degrees Celsius, leaving a fork suspended in mid-air.

Her post garnered over 9.5 million views, with many users trying similar experiments, including one with a toilet paper roll frozen upright. McDermed affirmed the experiment was "100% real."

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The National Weather Service said the storm affected over 140 million people from Texas to New England, closing schools and roads. Temperatures in southern states were 15 to 20 degrees below normal.

Officials urged people to avoid non-essential travel. Conditions were expected to gradually improve after January 26.