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Winter Has Come: US Hit By Harshest Snowstorm in Decades

08:27 GMT, 26 December 2022
The US faces one of the most unprecedented snowstorms in its history, with a death toll of more than 40 - with most dying in car accidents.
Sputnik
The storm covers the territories from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the US population received a weather warning. The storm was especially destructive in Buffalo, New York State.
The weather disaster came quickly – the temperature dropped sharply within 24 hours. This was an abysmal record: from -53 degrees Celsius in western Canada to -38 in Minnesota and -28 in Houston.
Explore the scenes of chilling cold across the country in our gallery.
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Mark Sorter clears snow from a downtown ice skating rink, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa.
© AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall
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Horses run through a field of snow at a ranch outside Heber, Utah, on December 23, 2022.
© AFP 2023 / George Frey
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A winter storm rolls through western New York on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. The battering winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the United States. It left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments.

© AP Photo / Jeffrey T. Barnes
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A person clears snow from the sidewalk during a snowstorm on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022 in Buffalo, N.Y.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday that the the Buffalo Niagara International Airport will be closed through Monday morning, some roads would be closed through Christmas day and almost every fire truck in Buffalo was stranded in the snow.

© AP Photo / Carolyn Thompson
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Antonio Smothers jumps his vehicle on December 23,2022 after winter storm Elliot moved through the middle Tennessee region leaving behind freezing rain, snow and below-zero temperatures, in Nashville, Tennessee on December 23, 2022. A historic and brutal winter storm put some 240 million Americans under severe weather warnings Friday as the US faced holiday travel chaos, with thousands of flights canceled and major highways closed.

© AFP 2023 / Seth Herald
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A woman walks along Chicago's Michigan Avenue as she braves the freezing weather ahead of the Christmas holiday, on December 23, 2022.

© AFP 2023 / Kamil Krzaczynski
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A winter storm rolls through western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y.

© AP Photo / Jeffrey T. Barnes
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A person walks on the street as a winter storm rolls through Western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y.

© AP Photo / Jeffrey T. Barnes
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