Seventeen people have died as a result of extreme weather in the US.
Temperatures have dropped to as low as minus 45 degrees Celsius in what's known as a 'bomb cyclone', bringing heavy snow in many places, closing roads, grounding flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Temperatures in some areas dropped by 30 degrees in just 30 minutes on Friday- while the State of Montana saw temperatures drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius.
Most have been killed in car crashes caused by icy conditions - including one 50-vehicle pile-up in Ohio.
🚨#BREAKING: Mass Casualty Incident’ declared following pileup on Interstate 75 in Ohio
Multiple emergency crews are responding too a very serious accident is occurring on I-75N. With Mass Casualty Incident declared reports of over 100+ vehicles are piled up pic.twitter.com/TgfCm852Si
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 23, 2022
Two hundred million people are under some form of weather warning and in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul, has issued a state of emergency:
"I called it a kitchen sink storm because it's throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink - we've had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures"
Meteorologist and storm chaser Simon Brewer says people risk freezing in their own homes:
"It's incredibly dangerous, there are winds all across the midwest and northeast right now well above 40 miles per hour, causing damage and power outages, and since the temperatures are so cold these power outages can become deadly"
