Heavy snowfall hits North America

Pictures from Al Jazeera on Flickr Stormy weather and snow have paralysed parts of the US east coast, with hundreds of thousands of people left without electricity. Transport links were disrupted and forecasters warned that chilly temperatures on Sunday would mean the wet snow could swiftly turn icy. The storm stretched hundreds of kilometres from eastern Indiana into Pennsylvania and then down through Maryland as far south as North Carolina. Meteorologists said they had recorded snowfall as high as 96cm in parts of northern Maryland, a record for the state. The heavy snow toppled trees and sagged power lines, leaving more than 350,000 people without electricity in Maryland and neighbouring Virginia. "The roads are very difficult to travel ... and we are seeing a spike in power outages," Ed McDonough, from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, said. "We are telling local residents to stay home, enjoy the time with their families and let the highway crews do their work."