US prepares for foot of snow in coldest April on record

Millions of Americans were keeping their spring fever on hold this weekend as a late-winter storm tore across the country, dumping up to a foot of snow in parts of the plains and threatening to unleash near-hurricane conditions along the East Coast today amid warnings of major flooding and coastal erosion.

The system, which spawned at least one tornado in a suburb of Dallas on Friday, was expected to wallop parts of the south-eastern US yesterday before developing into a so-called "nor'-easter"with the potential for serious damage across New England.

It comes hard on the heels of a storm last week that similarly blanketed parts of the north-east in snow and only compounds the misery of what has already been the coldest April on record for many parts of the US.