A man shovels snow from outside his home in Orchard Park, New York, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Temperatures in all 50 US states dipped to freezing or below early yesterday as an unseasonably cold blast of weather moved across the country while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of five people.

The autumn blizzard dumped a year’s worth of snow in three days on Western New York state, where five people died and residents, some stranded overnight in cars, braced for another pummelling expected during the night.

The five deaths were tied to the storm, the latest a 46-year-old man was found in his car buried under about 4.6 metres of snow.

One person was killed in a traffic accident and three others died after suffering heart problems while shovelling heavy snow.

Every US state, including Hawaii, was bitten by temperatures at the freezing point of 0°C or below, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. It was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. Typically, such cold is not seen until late December through February, the NWS said.

The coldest November morning across the country since 1976

Parts of Erie County, western New York, had 1.5 metres of snow, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo. Snow fell at a rate of up to 13 cm an hour and some areas approached the US record for 24-hour snowfall totals of 193 cm, the NWS said yesterday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for 10 counties. National Guard troops were deployed to help residents cope with the storm.

A total of 0.9 to 1.2 metres of snow was expected in many areas of western New York and as much as 1.8 metres elsewhere during the night,.

A 225-km stretch of the NY State Thruway along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario was closed. Bans on driving were implemented in some places.

In the south, states were bracing for a record chill from the Arctic-born cold that swept the Rocky Mountains last week.