Major winter storm to bring deep snow and power outages to US east coast

Area expected to be affected stretches from Virginia to Massachusetts, and forecast includes freezing rain and up to 2ft of snow in some places

Around 45 million Americans are on standby for deep snow and power outages, as a major winter storm leaves the Rocky mountains and heads for east coast states.

In a short-range forecast issued early on Tuesday, the US National Weather Service said: The start of astronomical winter is under a week away, but Mother Nature is getting off to a fast start with multiple areas of winter weather forecast to impact parts of the United States through Thursday."