By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
The deaths of at least four people in New York on Tuesday were blamed on brutal thunder snow that has battered parts of the U.S. east coast since last weekend.
Three of the victims died from heart attacks and one during a vehicle accident, from a lake-effect storm reinforced with heavy snowfall in Erie County, N.Y., local TV channel WKBW reported.
A state of emergency has been declared in the county where the National Guard brought in heavy equipment to help disaster teams clear the snow and roadways.
The country awoke Tuesday to its coldest November morning since 1976, according to a meteorological report from the NBC. the average overnight temperature fell to 19.4 F (-7 C).
Another wave of heavy snow and freezing temperatures is expected Wednesday for the Great Lakes region, with the eastern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario likely to receive snow totals greater than 18 inches in limited bands in some areas of New York, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasts say lake snow band will move northward toward Buffalo, N.Y., during the morning rush hour Wednesday and into Niagara County, N.Y., at midday.
More than 50 percent of the continental U.S. was covered with snow as of Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said.
That marks the greatest covered area in the U.S. this early in the season since the service started tracking countrywide snow cover in 2003. On this day in 2013, only 12 percent of the country had snow.
Snow, freezing rain and ice storms on Tuesday were also reported in Boston and Washington.
A brutal blast of Arctic air triggered a lake-effect storm and snow in the states of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The National Weather Service warns that some areas could see six feet of snow before this weather pattern is finished.
www.aa.com.tr/en
