A major winter storm has hit America, producing heavy snow and significant ice which is expected to last days.

Road conditions have become increasingly dangerous in the central US since Saturday, with snow in the most heavily affected regions – Kansas and northern Missouri – predicted to reach as high as 35.6cm.

Some 60 million people are under weather alerts across 30 states, with the National Weather Service warning that severe thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornadoes and hail, are also a possibility in some regions over the next few days.

Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia have declared states of emergency as the storm, driven by a polar vortex, moves east.

A polar vortex is an area of low pressure and cold air that swirls like a wheel around each of Earth’s two polar regions. Sometimes the Arctic polar vortex wobbles and a lobe surges south, blanketing parts of North America with bitter temperatures.

It has already led to accidents across the nation, with a fire truck, several tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles overturned west of Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and some trucks spiralled into ditches, state highway patrol trooper Ben Gardner said.

“We are in it now,” he said in a video on social media which showed him at the scene of an accident.

To demonstrate the danger on the roads, the trooper filmed himself running onto the seemingly clear road and sliding across it for several seconds due to what appeared to be black ice.

“That’s what we’re dealing with out here, and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse, so get off the roads,” he warned.

Freezing rain in Wichita, Kansas, led to multiple crashes on Saturday morning, authorities said, as they urged drivers to stay home if possible and watch out for emergency vehicles.

Governors in neighbouring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency, while snowy conditions threatened to make driving dangerous to impossible, forecasters warned.

“Please stay off the roads. Crews are seeing too many vehicles out and sliding off,” Missouri’s transportation department said on the social platform X.

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Major airlines, including American, Delta, Southwest, and United, are waiving change fees ahead of likely flight disruptions in heavily affected regions.

Temperatures were well below zero in many areas on Saturday, such as -7C to -10C in Chicago, -18C in Minneapolis, and -25C in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.

New Orleans has held a vigil to mourn the lives of the 14 people killed when a truck was driven into revellers celebrating the new year.

Some of the relatives of those killed were among those who gathered on Saturday night on Bourbon Street, the famous French Quarter thoroughfare where the attack took place,

The vigil began near a makeshift memorial with pictures of the victims, candles, teddy bears and flowers carefully laid out on the street.

The families held each and cried – but when a brass band began playing, the sorrow transformed into celebration as the crowd danced and followed the music.

The New Orleans coroner’s office has identified 13 of the 14 victims, including British citizen Edward Pettifer.

The 31-year-old, from west London, was the stepson of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was Prince William and Prince Harry’s nanny between 1993 and 1999.

William yesterday paid tribute to Mr Pettifer, saying he was “shocked and saddened” by his “tragic” death.

Cathy Tenedorio, whose 25-year-old son Matthew died in the New Year’s Day attack, said she felt moved by the condolences and kindness at the vigil.

“This is the most overwhelming response of love, an outpouring of love,” she said. “I’m floating through it all.”

Autrele Felix, whose friend Nicole Perez was killed, said: “It means a lot, to see that our city comes together when there’s a real tragedy. We all become one.”

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Others said getting into the party spirit was the best way to honour the victims.

“Because that’s what they were down here to do, they were having a good time,” said Kari Mitten, a life-long New Orleans resident.

The cause of death of all 14 victims has been listed as “blunt force injuries” by the coroner’s office.

Around 30 other people were injured in the attack, which saw former US army solider Shamsud-Din Jabbar drive a rented truck into crowds of people in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Jabbar proclaimed his support for the Islamic State in videos posted online hours before the incident. He was shot dead in a firefight with police at the scene.

Of those injured, 13 remain in hospital and eight are in intensive care, a spokesperson for the University Medical Center New Orleans said.

Six days of funeral events are under way for the former US president Jimmy Carter as a service took place in Atlanta on Saturday.

The 100-year-old Democrat, who served one term in office from 1977 to 1981, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family on 29 December. He was the oldest living former US president.

A motorcade with his flag-draped coffin set off from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Centre in Americus, where ex-Secret Service agents who protected him served as pallbearers and walked alongside the hearse as it left the campus.

His family, including his four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, accompanied him in a procession that took his body through Plains and past his boyhood home on his family farm in nearby Archery.

There, the National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times to honour his time as the 39th president.

People lined the procession route in central Plains, near the train depot where Mr Carter had his presidential campaign headquarters.

Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins with Mr Carter’s photo.

“We want to pay our respects,” said Will Porter Shelbrock, 12, who was born more than three decades after Mr Carter left the White House in 1981.

“He was ahead of his time on what he tried to do and tried to accomplish.”

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The motorcade made its way to Atlanta, where there was a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol, and later a ceremony took place at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.

His body will remain at the Carter Presidential Centre until Tuesday, when he will be flown to Washington DC to lie in state at the US Capitol.

His state funeral begins on Thursday at 10am at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.

He will be buried near his home, next to his late wife Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023.

They were both born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the city, apart from Mr Carter’s navy career and his terms as Georgia governor and president.

Last year, on his 100th birthday, Mr Carter received a private congratulatory message from the King, expressing admiration for his life of public service.

Mr Carter became president when he defeated former president Gerald Ford in 1976.

The Georgia native and former peanut farmer was later beaten by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The final year of Mr Carter’s administration was dominated by a hostage crisis in Iran, when 52 Americans were taken captive at the US embassy in November 1979.

On the day he left office, 20 January 1981, the hostages were released. Mr Carter had continued negotiations behind the scenes, even after his election defeat.

In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to avoid conflict around the world.

Mr Carter conducted diplomatic missions into his 80s and was involved in building houses for the poor well into his 90s.

Following his death, former president Bill Clinton and his wife, the ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, led tributes to Mr Carter, who they first met during his campaign in 1975, giving “thanks for his long, good life”.

“Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others – until the very end,” they said in a statement.

White House incumbent Joe Biden said: “Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian.”

President-elect Donald Trump said the challenges Mr Carter faced as president “came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans”.

“For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” he said in a statement.