Thanks to reader Wayne!

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By JAMES GORDON

More than 35 million Americans were under extreme weather warnings as a bomb cyclone, a kind of 'winter hurricane' that generates violent winds when air pressure drops quickly, swept in.

States including the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia have been worst affected, with snow seen falling as far south as Tampa, Florida. In central Florida temperatures as low as the high teens are possible. At this time of year thermometers are more typically hitting the 70s.

There has been havoc on the roads, with North Carolina alone suffering 750 car crashes on Saturday, according to highway patrol.

Around 100 vehicles were left stranded in the snow along a northbound section of Interstate 85 north of Charlotte, North Carolina, where more snow fell in a single day on Saturday than the city has seen in two decades.

A late afternoon crash involving a car and a tractor-trailer led to only one lane being open along the road near Kannapolis. That in turn caused long traffic jams just as heavy snow began accumulating on the highway, North Carolina State Highway Patrol said.

Snow fell so quickly it caused tractor-trailers and cars on I-85 to become stuck, stranding drivers.

'Once they're blocking the interstate, everybody stops,' North Carolina State Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Christopher Knox told CBS 17. 'We're just limited in what we can do because of the interstate not being physically passable.'