Winter storm threatens travel chaos on US east coast

Forecasters warned that a deluge of snow and wintery conditions could bring travel chaos to the US northeast this weekend, with some 25 million people subject to a storm warning. Several cities in the eastern United States including New York have gone record periods without winter snowfall.

The affected area stretches from just outside Boston, inland across the northeast through parts of New England down towards Baltimore and Washington, DC. Ice was likely to cause power outages and fell trees, forecasters warned as winter storm Ember closed in on heavily populated areas.