N. AMERICA SNOWSTORM TIGHTENS GRIP !

Some 40cm (16in) of snow fell in some parts.

Snow causes chaos

A snowstorm that caused major disruption in eastern Canada and the north-eastern US still has Canada's Atlantic provinces in its grip. The storm, which began on Saturday, was one of the worst in the region for decades, Canadian forecasters said. At least 20,000 people in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were without power early on Monday and schools were shut. The driving snow and sleet were blamed for several deaths over the weekend, and caused widespread travel problems. Residents across the Great Lakes region, eastern Canada and New England faced the prospect of digging their way out on Monday, after the storm dumped up to 40cm (16in) of snow.

See a map of Sunday's storms

The weather system was moving north-eastwards with Newfoundland and Labrador next in line for driving snow and sleet. Dave Phillips, a senior climatologist at Canada's weather service, Environment Canada, said the storm was likely to dump more snow in the days ahead. "It's a big one, a dangerous one," he told CTV News. The weekend snowfall forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights across Canada and the US. The snowstorm, which had earlier hit the Midwestern US, brought blizzards, hail, freezing rain and high winds to Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces of Canada late on Saturday and throughout Sunday.

Your pictures: snow storm

In Toronto and Montreal, heavy snow combined with winds gusting up to 70km/h (45 mph) caused conditions that led to several people accidentally driving off icy motorways, transport officials said. One woman was killed near London, Ontario, when her vehicle was hit by a snow plough after she had pulled over to fix a windshield wiper. Slippery roads in the US were blamed for four deaths in Indiana, two in Michigan and one in Wisconsin and one in Pennsylvania.

Around 160,000 customers were left without electricity in parts of Pennsylvania on Sunday after heavy snow damaged power lines. The snowfall comes less than a week after an ice storm claimed 38 lives in the Midwest, most of them in road accidents. Tens of thousands of people in the affected areas of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri still have no electricity.

BBC NEWS REPORT.