An "extremely dangerous" storm has dumped large amounts of snow in the eastern US, killing at least two people and paralysing parts of the region.
About 10in (25cm) of snow had fallen by 0100 (0600 GMT) in Washington, with forecasters predicting the heaviest snowfall to hit the area in 90 years.
Museums closed, transport was widely disrupted, and residents were told to prepare for up to five days indoors.
A rare blizzard warning is in effect for the Washington-Baltimore area.
The storm - dubbed "snowpocalypse" and "snowmageddon" by the local media - is expected to stretch from Indiana to Pennsylvania and into parts of New York and North Carolina.
Parts of Maryland and West Virginia are already buried under more than 20in (51 cm) of snow.
And forecasters say that snowfall rates are likely to increase - up to 2in (5cm) an hour - early in the day.
It comes less than two months after a December storm dumped more than 16in (41cm) of snow in Washington.
It forecast up to 30in (76cm) of snow in the capital, which would shatter Washington's record snowfall of 28in in 1922.
Late on Friday, Washington was left without a bus service after roads were deemed "impassable" and the metro stopped all but its underground service.
The storm has been blamed for at least two deaths - a father and son who were hit by a tractor-trailer on a road in Virginia when they stopped to help a stranded motorist, local media reported.
All flights were cancelled at Washington's Reagan National airport, and only some international flights were operating at Dulles International.
Flights from international destinations, including the UK were also disrupted.
In London, British Airways cancelled one flight to Washington and one to Baltimore. Its flights from Philadelphia and Washington to Heathrow were stuck overnight in the US.
Residents were urged to keep off the roads, and to be prepared to stay inside for up to five days.
One Washington resident described the scene at her local supermarket.
"I got there at 0700 [on Friday] and there were really long queues, Jane Bate, 41, told the AFP news agency. "The place looked like it had been ransacked."
The governors of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware have declared states of emergency, a move that puts the National Guard on alert.
According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, 94% of the state's snow removal budget had already been spent during the December blizzard.
Officials said they would have to use emergency funds to pay for snow removal after this latest storm.
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