Western US states hit by record freeze and heavy snow

Severe weather brings record low temperatures in Seattle and huge snowfalls in California and Nevada

The US west is facing record-breaking cold temperatures and heavy snow as severe weather sweeps the region from Washington to California.

Officials in Oregon and western Washington opened emergency warming shelters as temperatures dropped into the teens (below zero in centigrade) amid an arctic blast that forecasters said would last several days. In California, heavy snow closed ski resorts and shut down travel across much of the Sierra Nevada, the mountainous region along the California-Nevada border.