Massive storm slams US with snow, ice, bitter cold

Washington (AFP/ RSS): 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.

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 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) swath 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.

The agency warned that areas from northeastern Kansas to north-central Missouri would see “the heaviest snowfall in a decade.”

Scientists say extreme weather is becoming more common and more severe as a result of manmade climate change.