The National Weather Service (NWS) issued winter storm warnings and storm watches across a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) stretch of the US east coast, from Georgia up to Vermont.

Heavy snow is forecast for the New York and Boston areas, starting Sunday and continuing into Sunday night, with overnight temperatures in the 20s Fahrenheit (minus seven Celsius) and wind gusting up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour.

Washington was facing the prospect of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow Sunday.

At the airports in the national capital's regions, snow crews were standing by.

"We're just watching the forecast like everyone else," Courtney Mickalonis, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, told The Washington Post. "We won't know until the snow starts what we're dealing with."

While the US capital region's schools are closed for the winter break between Christmas and New Year, a storm of that magnitude would heap misery on Monday morning commuters.

"Significant amounts of snow are expected" in the Washington area, and "this will make travel very hazardous or impossible," NWS said in an advisory.

Ice and snow has already snarled road traffic in several southeastern states, including Georgia's northern mountains where six inches (15 centimeters) were reported Saturday.

Asheville, North Carolina saw seven inches (17 centimeters) of snow, and the state's department of transportation reported interstate highways partially covered with snow and ice.

Delta Air Lines Inc.said Saturday that it has canceled 500 flights nationally because of the storm, according to media reports.

The cancellations included 300 of the 800 flights from Delta's hub in Atlanta, which has been hit hard by the storm, the reports said.

"At this point we're still looking at the weather, and we are advising customers that there will be more cancellations (on Sunday and Monday) if the weather moves north," Delta spokesman Kent Landers told AFP.

Flights from Midwestern cities have been delayed or canceled because of the weather, according to the reports.

Meanwhile, Americans in the deep south were treated to a very rare white Christmas Saturday, and several hundred flights were cancelled amid foul weather that could see much of the US east coast snowbound by Boxing Day.

Light to moderate snow blanketed communities in the southern Gulf states of Alabama and Mississippi, meteorologists said, while Atlanta, Georgia reportedly enjoyed its first snowy Christmas in 128 years.

Snowfalls were expected to break records in the normally mild south, where residents including thrilled youngsters were surprised by the winter weather.

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