Powerful winter storm hammers US, set to impact 60mn people

A powerful winter storm hammered the United States on Sunday, with meteorologists warning millions in the east faced blizzard conditions and some areas would see the heaviest snowfall in a decade.

- Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON:

More than 60 million people are in the path of the dangerous storm, set to plunge the eastern half of the United States into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday resulting in severe travel disruptions.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of ice, snow and gale-force winds in states from the central plains to the Mid-Atlantic.

Winter storm warnings have been issued from western Kansas clear across to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, an unusually broad 2,400-kilometre swathe under immediate threat.

"Disruptive winter storm to impact the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic through Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations," the NWS said in its latest report.