Massive winter storm sweeps across US bringing ice, frigid temps

Houston: A winter storm headed towards the northeast United States on Sunday after sweeping across much of the country, threatening massive tens of mi...

Houston: A winter storm headed towards the northeast United States on Sunday after sweeping across much of the country, threatening massive tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation chaos and bone-chilling cold.

After battering the country's southwest and central areas, the storm system began to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states with snow and freezing rain as a frigid air mass settled in across the nation.

“The snow/sleet impacts will linger well into next week with rounds of re-freezing that keeps surfaces icy and dangerous to both drive and walk on for the forested future,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Snowfall was reported across the central United States, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where some spots already recorded eight inches (20 centimeters) on the ground by Saturday night, the NWS said.

Shoppers stripped supermarket shelves as the weather service forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly "catastrophic" ice accumulations.