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CHICAGO - HEAVY snow blanketed much of the central United States, shutting down busy roadways, closing schools and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
Some 500 flights were cancelled on Friday at Chicago's O'Hare airport where delays were also averaging 45 to 60 minutes, a spokesman for the airport said.
As the massive storm system made its way slowly eastward, huge swaths of the country prepared to hunker down for a wet weekend of shovelling.
The storm which started on Thursday afternoon has already dumped anywhere from 15 to 30 centimetres of snow on parts of Illinois and Michigan and a further 15 to 10 centimetres was expected, said National Weather Service spokesman Pat Slattery.
'These gusty winds are going to cause problems with drifting snow,' he said. 'It's going to continue up into the north-east states and of course once it gets through Maine it will head out into the Atlantic and up to Canada.'
The heavy snowstorm was already socking eastern Canada on Friday, snarling traffic and prompting the delay or cancellation of some 200 flights from Toronto's Pearson International.
Snow was falling in Ontario and the storm was expected to move eastward across Quebec dropping between 15 and 30 centimetres of snow by Saturday, forecasters said.
There will be some relief from frigid temperatures for the US on Sunday, when much of the midwest and east coast should get back above freezing, Mr Slattery said.
'It'll start melting, but it's not going to be a huge rush,' he said, explaining that since the ground was frozen in many places a quick melt could cause problems with flooding.
Over at O'Hare airport, Mr Gregg Cunningham of the city's department of aviation said airlines expected schedules to begin returning to normal. -- AFP
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