A powerful winter storm is peaking as it moves east, battering the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast with blizzard conditions, damaging ice, widespread power outages and major travel disruptions.

A powerful winter storm driven by a rapidly intensifying cyclone was sweeping east from the Plains on Sunday, bringing heavy snow, ice, rain and severe weather expected to affect much of the country.

A major winter storm is pummeling the Tri-State Area with snow and ice after New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency.

Officials in Vermont and Buffalo, N.Y., warned residents to stay off the roads as a winter weather system brought thick sheets of ice and snow. Tens of thousands of power customers faced outages.

A strong cold front will sweep through the area Monday, bringing falling temperatures, gusty winds exceeding 40 mph, and the potential for rain changing to snow. Wind chills Monday night into Tuesday could drop to between minus five and 10 degrees as below-normal temperatures settle in for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The recent winter storm created spectacular ice formations along Lake Michigan's shoreline, with the 35-foot lighthouse covered in frozen layers.