The Great Lakes region on Saturday began digging out from the season's first major snowstorm as the Midwest and Plains shivered under an arctic blast forecast to spread over the eastern third of the country.

Travel will be extremely difficult and hazardous this weekend,” the National Weather Service warned on Saturday.

The snowfall was heaviest along Interstate 90, the National Weather Service said, which hugs Lake Erie from Buffalo, New York, and on to Cleveland.

A lake effect storm pummelled parts of the Great Lakes region Friday night, shutting down highways on one of the biggest travel days of the year in the US. Communities on the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario - in New York state,

Post-Thanksgiving travel plans were thrown into trouble as almost 30 inches of snow fell along Lake Erie, closing a stretch of I-90 and stranding motorists.

A heavy band of snow has closed a major interstate linking Cleveland and Buffalo on the busiest Thanksgiving travel weekend on record.