State of emergency in many places

Storm in the USA: record snowfall expected

Missouri is one of the US states in which a state of emergency has been declared - the picture shows a homeowner shoveling snow in St. Louis.(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

A severe winter storm with snow and freezing temperatures hit large parts of the USA on Monday. Severe weather warnings are in place for around 60 million residents in more than a dozen states, according to US media reports citing meteorologists. The cold front stretched from the Midwest to the East Coast. Kansas and Missouri were hit particularly hard, with up to 25 centimetres of snow falling.

In some regions, the heaviest snowfall in a decade was expected, according to the weather service. In places, temperatures were measured at ten degrees below zero. Winter storm warnings are also in place for the capital Washington, where Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election is due to be confirmed in the US Congress today.

(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

Police across the country reported hundreds of car accidents on slippery roads, with many drivers stuck in their cars in the driving snow. Numerous schools remained closed as a precaution. At airports in the affected states, around 1700 flights had been canceled by Sunday evening (local time), reported CNN.

State of emergency in several states
Power was also cut in many places due to damaged power lines. According to the website Poweroutage.us, around 200,000 households in the affected states were without electricity. A state of emergency was declared in seven states - Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Maryland and parts of New Jersey. For several million people, the weather service also warned of blizzards - the name given in the USA to severe snowstorms with sharp drops in temperature.