Millions without power

Heavy snowstorm in the east of the USA and Canada

(Bild: Associated Press)

A heavy snowstorm has caused chaos on the east coast of the USA and Canada. According to the website PowerOutage.us, almost half a million households in the USA were temporarily without power on Friday night (local time).

In the small town of Gray in the state of Maine, around 44 centimetres of snow had fallen by Thursday evening, the US weather service reported on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

Further south in the states of New York and New Jersey, there had already been "torrential rainfall" on Wednesday, as reported by ABC News. According to police, one person was killed in a suburb of New York City when a tree fell on their car.

(Bild: Associated Press)

Storm snaps trees and power poles
Hundreds of thousands of people in Canada were also temporarily without power on Thursday, according to the CBC. In Montreal, a city with over a million inhabitants in the south of the province of Quebec, the snowstorm toppled trees and electricity pylons. Hundreds of schools remained closed on Thursday. According to US media, classes were also canceled in many places in the northeast of the USA.

Although the snowstorm - a so-called "Nor'easter" - has now largely weakened, the US weather service announced on Thursday evening. However, up to eight centimetres of snow could still fall on Friday.

What is "Nor'easter"?

The weather phenomenon "Nor'easter" describes storms that move from the north-east across Canada's Atlantic provinces and the north-east of the USA. They occur when warm sea air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cold polar air off the coast of New England.

Although many people have been surprised by the winter weather, snow in April is not unusual in the north-east of the USA, the New York Times quoted an expert from the US weather service as saying. The weather has been unusually mild this winter. "People may have gotten a little too comfortable."