Winter storm Elliott – latest: Driving ban lifted in Buffalo as blizzard deaths hit 38

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said during a press conference on Saturday that “it’s very clear to me that the effects of climate change are wreaking havoc everywhere”.

She said the zero visibility and whiteouts may make this winter storm as one of the “worst in history”.

She noted that Buffalo broke its previous record of snowfall from 1977 a month ago already.

An arctic blast has brought extreme cold, heavy snow and intense wind across much of the U.S. — just in time for the holidays.

The weather system, dubbed a “bomb cyclone,” is disrupting travel and causing hazardous winter conditions.

A front of cold air is moving down from the Arctic, sending temperatures plunging.

Much of the U.S. will see below-average temperatures, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

Temperatures may drop by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) in just a few hours, the National Weather Service predicts.

Wind chill temperatures could drop to dangerous lows far below zero — enough to cause frostbite within minutes. In parts of the Plains, the wind chill could dip as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 57 Celsius).

Those in the Plains, the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes were cautioned to expect blizzard conditions as heavy winds whip up the snow, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters in the US are also warning of the potential for a “bomb cyclone” – but what does this mean?

For the surfing Santas off Florida’s central coast, the Atlantic Ocean felt more like the North Pole than the Sunshine State as temperatures on Saturday morning plunged to around freezing, while freeze warnings were in place for at least half of the state.

Parts of the Florida Panhandle had wind chills that dipped into the single digits on Saturday morning, and interior parts of central Florida had temperatures plunging as low as 27 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2.7 Celsius degrees).

“It’s a frigid start to your #ChristmasEve across the area,” the National Weather Service in Tallahassee tweeted.

Miami was among the last holdouts of warm weather in the U.S. on Friday, but by Saturday morning temperatures had dipped to below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) for the first time in almost a year. South Floridians were on the watch for falling iguanas. The cold-blooded reptiles that reside in Miami suburbs typically become immobilized when temperatures drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 Celsius degrees).

Despite the frigid temperature, the 14th annual Christmas Eve Surfing Santas festival was held Saturday morning at Cocoa Beach on Florida’s Space Coast.

The event has grown from 10 surfers dressed in Santa costumes when it started in 2009 to hundreds of participants on surfboards, boogie boards and paddle boards in years past. Close to 140 surfers braved the frigid water Saturday morning. Almost 10,000 spectators showed up to cheer them on, and a beachside restaurant distributed free hot cocoa to help them stay warm, according to organizers.

America is facing its coldest Christmas in living memory as swathes of the country suffer ice storms, whiteouts and ferocious subzero winds.

Tens of millions of people on the east coast faced the holidays with the threat of rolling blackouts after grid operations ran into trouble from the frigid conditions. Yesterday, 1.6m customers in states from Texas to Connecticut were without power.

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In North Carolina, 265,000 customers were without power Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. They included James Reynolds of Greensboro, who said his best friend and housemate, a 70-year-old with diabetes and severe arthritis, spent the morning bundled beside his kerosene heater.

“The bedrooms and much of the house temperatures are hovering in the 50s,” Reynolds told The Associated Press.

In the Buffalo, New York suburb of Cheektowaga, two people died in their homes on Friday when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical emergencies, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

“This may turn out to be the worst storm in our community’s history,” Poloncarz said Saturday morning. “There are still likely hundreds of people stuck in vehicles.”

Colleen Darby, 59, of Williamsville outside Buffalo, says she had planned to host a Christmas party for family and friends, but the storm will keep her and her daughter at home with a refrigerator full of food.

“I’ve never seen the likes of this kind of storm,” said Darby, a lifelong resident of the area. “I can’t even get out of my house right now. The snow is up to my chest.”