A powerful storm system left holiday travelers in the western U.S. contending with a chaotic mix of snow, sleet and ice.
From Anchorage to Salt Lake City, roads were closed and flights delayed on Wednesday. Messy wintry weather was expected across much of the Dakotas on Thanksgiving Day.
Freezing rain glazed roads across the Midwest, and at least three traffic deaths in Iowa were blamed on the weather.
Early-season snowstorms buried Seattle, and shut down highways for a time in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.
It also brought strong winds Wednesday from New Mexico to Missouri.
More than 40 million people plan to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday, according to AAA, with more than 1.6 million flying — a 3.5 percent increase from last year.
Cold weather shelters opened
Meanwhile, a medical examiner in Washington state said two men died of hypothermia after being exposed to the cold.
An unusual cold snap has sent Western Washington temperatures plummeting in the past week.
King County's medical examiner said 66-year-old James R. Furseth, of Issaquah, died Saturday and 76-year-old Jerry M. Fitzgerald, of Redmond, died Friday.
Several emergency cold weather shelters have opened in the Puget Sound area.
The temperature dropped to 14 degrees early Wednesday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old record of 16 from 1985.
Records have been kept at Sea-Tac since the 1940s.