The north eastern states of the United States are preparing for a 'historic' blizzard with warnings of up to three feet of snow in some areas.
American musician Nile Rodgers has tweeted this image from the window of his New York City apartment, showing the early stages of the blizzard arriving in the city as, according to Rodgers, snow is falling at a rate of two inches per hour.
It's snowing at two inches per hour in NYC. This shot's from my bedroom window. They say CT is going to be worse. pic.twitter.com/FAdDnR62dE
— Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) January 26, 2015
Aer Lingus has cancelled a number of flights in the Northeast region of the US due to blizzard conditions.
Officials have told residents to prepare for the worst, and airlines have cancelled thousands of flights.
Snow fell during the morning commute in several cities, including Philadelphia and New York, and flurries have begun in Boston.
The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for a 250-mile stretch of the Northeast.
This began at 1pm EST (6pm Irish time), and conditions are expected to worsen overnight into Tuesday.
The NWS has warned of two days of winter storms across the region, from Pennsylvania to Maine.
Sky News's Hannah Thomas-Peter in New York said: "Very unusually the National Weather Service have used extremely strong language, saying that this blizzard could be life-threatening, it could cripple major cities across the North East coast."
"The NWS has said categorically that travel, this evening, overnight and in the morning when the conditions are due to be at their worst, will be life-threatening."
Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned residents to be prepared, telling them: "This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city.
"My message to New Yorkers is to prepare for something worse than we have seen before".
Streets will only be accessible to emergency vehicles from 11pm local time because of the snowstorm, and subway services will be limited.
All public schools in the city will also be closed on Tuesday.
The city could see snowfall of 30in (76cm) or more in some suburbs.
Winds of up to 55mph (88kph) are also predicted, raising the prospect of power outages caused by trees falling on power lines.
This has prompted New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency for New York City and suburban areas to the north and east.
The storm "should not be taken lightly", and "could affect health and safety", he said.
States of emergency have also been declared in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The National Weather Service called the system a "crippling and potentially historic blizzard", with many areas along the East Coast expected to be blanketed by heavy snowfall.
More than 2,680 flights have been cancelled so far on Monday, according to the plane tracking site FlightAware.
Almost 3,000 flights have been scrapped for Tuesday.
Most major airlines are allowing customers whose flights are cancelled in the next few days to book new flights without paying a penalty.
In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker warned residents to prepare for roads that are "very hard, if not impossible, to navigate", as well as power outages and possibly a lack of public transportation.
Boston is expected to get up to 24in (60cm) of snow, and Philadelphia could see up to a foot (30cm), the weather service said.
