Some 200 million Americans are feeling the icy grip of a massive winter storm that has been linked to at least 12 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.
More than 1.5 million people lost power and thousands of flights were cancelled on Friday.
The vast storm extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec.
A bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure plummets, has brought blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes on the US-Canada border.
In Canada, Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast, with power cut to hundreds of thousands.
Much of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said its Friday map "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever".
Temperatures in Elk Park, Montana, dropped to -50F (-45C), while the town of Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.
It was 1F (-17C) in the snow-covered community on Friday night. Emily, a bartender at Smitty's Hell Saloon, told the BBC: "It's pretty cold here, but we're having a hell of a time."
In South Dakota, snowed-in Native Americans burned clothes for warmth after running out of fuel, said tribal officials.
Heavy snowfall was forecast in areas of Pennsylvania and Michigan. Buffalo, New York, was expecting at least 35in (89cm). More than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings, said the NWS.
Coastal flooding has been seen in New England, New York and New Jersey.
In the Pacific Northwest, some residents ice-skated on frozen streets in Seattle and Portland.
Even the usually milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia were experiencing hard-freeze warnings.
A number of the storm-related fatalities have involved road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in Ohio that killed two motorists.
Travel problems across the country were being exacerbated by a shortage of snow plough operators, with low pay rates being blamed.
More than 5,600 US flights were cancelled on Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, as flyers battled to make it home for Christmas.
By Friday night one million customers had no electricity across the US, according to PowerOutage.us.
Utilities throughout the Tennessee Valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power.
The NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days. Decades-old records have already been matched:
- Denver, Colorado, dropped to -24F on Thursday, its lowest point since the 1990s. Craig McBrierty, 34, who is originally from Scotland, but now lives in Denver, told the BBC it is "colder than I have ever experienced"
- Wichita, Kansas, recorded its coldest wind chill (-32F) since 2000
- Nashville, Tennessee, saw its temperatures plunge to below zero for the first time in 26 years
- Casper, Wyoming, set a new record low on Tuesday of -42F
Latest Stories
-
Failure to properly transfer gun ownership can land you behind bars
3 mins -
Reduce over-reliance on imports to stabilise cedi – TUC boss tells Ghanaians
19 mins -
‘We’re taking it game by game’ – Ibrahim Tanko on Accra Lions’ title ambitions
27 mins -
Nigerians pick sides as Wizkid and Davido clash online
32 mins -
Nigeria Workers’ Day: Civil servants get pay rises up to 35%
38 mins -
“I am the Austrian team boss with all my heart,” Rangnick turns down Bayern
56 mins -
Failed asylum seeker given £3,000 to go to Rwanda
58 mins -
Nigerian gasoline prices soar as shortages worsen cost of living crisis
1 hour -
Paris 2024: We will win medal at Olympics if government invests more – GPC President
1 hour -
Akufo-Addo calls for protection of Ghana’s democratic reputation and identity
1 hour -
Apple working to fix alarming iPhone issue
1 hour -
‘You won’t win GPL title without your own stadium’ – Bashir Hayford tells Kotoko, Hearts
1 hour -
Ryan Garcia denies using performance-enhancing drugs after beating Devin Haney
2 hours -
We must change phenomenon of moneyed elections – Raymond Atuguba
2 hours -
Accra Lions punished us for not taking our chances – Hearts of Oak assistant coach Abdul Bashiru
2 hours