Weather forecasters now warn of flooding as the snow melts in the north-east of the US.
Officials in New York state are worried some buildings may collapse when the rain arrives. The storms are blamed for at least 13 deaths in the area.
The state remains paralyzed by “historic” levels of snowfall.
The city of Buffalo was estimated to have received as much snow in three days as it normally gets in a year.
In parts of the city the snow was estimated to be as much as 8ft deep. Some areas received a further 3ft earlier this week.
The deaths of at least 13 people have been linked to the storms, mostly from exposure and heart attacks. Some of those who died were shoveling snow.
Weather forecasters have predicted light rain to begin over the weekend alongside warmer temperatures.
Officials in the Buffalo area of New York state have warned that the major concern now is the threat of roof collapses.
More than 30 collapses in the area have already been reported.
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo said boats, pumps, sand bags and other equipment had been moved to western parts of the state to deal with potential emergencies.
He said: “If the temperature goes up as quickly as they are forecasting, there is a potential for building collapses, significant flooding.”
He added: “We don’t have a crystal ball. We can’t say exactly whether there will be a flooding problem. We can’t say what kind of structure collapses we’re going to have. But we anticipate both to some extent.
“Flooding can be terrible. I mean really terrible. Flooding can be worse than the snow.”
With many roads still impassable, sporting fixtures have either been postponed or cancelled.
A flood warning remains in effect in the counties of Erie, including the city of Buffalo, Genessee, Wyoming, Chatauqua and Cattaraugus, the National Weather Service said.
Liz Cheney has decided to drop out of the Senate primary after her bid to unseat Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi sparked a round of warfare in the Republican Party and even within her own family.
The official announcement from Liz Cheney – the eldest daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney – could come as early as Monday.
Liz Cheney’s election bid in the deeply conservative state was controversial from the outset.
Liz Cheney has decided to drop out of the Senate primary after her bid to unseat Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi sparked a round of warfare in the Republican Party and even within her own family
Her Wyoming credentials were challenged in spite of her family’s deep roots in the state, because she spent much of her youth and adult life in Virginia.
Last summer, Liz Cheney committed an embarrassing political gaffe in a state where hunting and fishing are taken very seriously by mistakenly buying the wrong fishing license after living in Wyoming for just a few months.
Another scandal erupted when Liz Cheney’s sister, Mary Cheney, and her wife, Heather Poe, took to social media to blast the elder sister for her continued opposition to gay marriage.
Jaw-dropping pictures posted on social networks reveal the devastation caused by massive hail storms which have swept through Colorado and Wyoming this week.
Destructive hailstones coated the ground so thickly that the landscape appeared to be covered in snow, KOAA reported.
Stunned residents took to Facebook and Twitter to share their photos of the bizarre weather, which blocked roads and left some cars almost totally submerged.
One picture in particular tugged at many heartstrings when it was posted by KDVR – a touching snapshot of a dog which sought shelter from the torrential downpour in a trash can.
Jaw-dropping pictures posted on social networks reveal the devastation caused by massive hail storms which have swept through Colorado and Wyoming this week
The hail downpour was part of a powerful storm system that rolled through parts of Colorado and Wyoming on Thursday, packing heavy rains, high winds and hail.
The storms followed a round of nasty late spring weather that pummeled the region.
Preliminary reports show Colorado was hit by 10 tornadoes during the past two days.
The storms came at the peak time for such severe weather in the state. Severe thunderstorms normally become less common later in the month and in early July until summer monsoons start developing.
At least seven homes were damaged in Elbert County on the plains southeast of Denver.
County officials said two homes lost roofs and others had broken windows but the total damage was still being assessed.
Laura Van Why said she and her husband Dennis, their 2-year-old son and two dogs hid under the stairs of their basement while the storm passed near Kiowa, Colorado.
“It felt like forever,” Laura Van Why said.
“It was like, <<Black out the windows>>.”
Forecaster Jerry Claycomb, from the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, said the same factors created the storms in both states.
A low-pressure system stalled over northern Colorado and against the Laramie Range mountains southeast of Casper. That pulled up low-level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico from the southeast.
High-level westerly winds combined with low-level southeasterly winds to create what Jerry Claycomb called “shear”, which he said amounts to a turning in the atmosphere.
“It created these super cell thunderstorms over us, and those super cells created some tornadoes,” he said.
[youtube EY3Nw1Y4NV0]
