Parts of the United States are braced for potentially record-breaking low temperatures as a polar vortex brings more freezing weather.
A winter storm has already blanketed areas of Canada and the north-eastern US with up to two feet of snow.
The US National Weather Service said in a statement that the coldest weather in years will be making its presence known from the Upper Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic region for the beginning of the work week.
The states of Ohio, South Dakota and Illinois are among those set to be hit. Tennessee and Kentucky are forecast to see several inches of snow.
The weather service says an incredibly strong surge of bitterly cold Arctic air was sweeping across the country until Tuesday.
It is set to continue to the north-east, where residents are still digging out from the week’s deadly snowstorm.
Heavy snow has also affected US states including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Boston was said to be the worst hit with nearly 18in of snow.
Schools have also been closed across the state of Minnesota for today, as well as for parts of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, among others.
Sixteen deaths have been blamed on the wide-ranging storm.
Some 1,200 flights were cancelled across the US on Saturday, with over 2,500 cancelled nationwide by the middle of Sunday, almost half of those in Chicago.
Authorities have warned residents to remain indoors, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for snow removal.
In Canada, thousands of people on the island of Newfoundland remain without power due to a transformer fire linked to heavy snow.
Source: Independent Television and Radio
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