Huge winter storm closes US highways and prompts rare southern California blizzard warning

Hundreds of thousands lose power and thousands of flights canceled as weather takes toll across northern and western states

A brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming on Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in southern California in decades - and the worst won't be over for several days.

Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F warmer than normal and creating weather that feels more like June than February", according to the National Weather Service.