A blizzard battered the US Midwest, canceling flights and disrupting the presidential campaign

Tens of thousands of Americans are subject to dangerous weather conditions, with blizzards sweeping across the Northwest and Midwest, flooding threatening the East Coast and hurricanes on the horizon in the South.

Airlines delayed more than 7,600 flights around the United States on Friday, including flights at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, due to wind and blinding snow.

In Iowa, Republican presidential candidates canceled events three days before the first statewide caucuses where the parties will choose their candidates for the November presidential election.

“This storm system is definitely dangerous,” said Zach Taylor, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's (NWS) Weather Forecast Center in College Park, Maryland.

The service discouraged unnecessary travel, warning that visibility was less than a mile on some Chicago roads.

The weather forecast for Iowa's capital Des Moines on Monday is minus 28 degrees Celsius. Temperatures for Monday's caucuses, with long gatherings in churches and school gymnasiums, are expected to be the coldest on record for this political event.

Republican candidate Nikki Haley, a former ambassador and governor of South Carolina, canceled all three of her campaign events scheduled for Friday and replaced them with phone-in events.

Officials have canceled a planned rally in Bella, Iowa for supporters of Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House after losing the 2020 election.