VANCOUVER VOICE: Belbin and Agosto trapped in Snowmageddon

VANCOUVER might be unseasonably mild - or near tropical by conventional Winter Olympic standards - but North America's East Coast is being hit by a succession of snow storms.

SNOW GO: Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are looking to upgrade their Turin silver in Vancouver - but their arrival has been delayed (Getty Images)

Washington DC has been paralysed and New York is expecting to bear the brunt of today's weather, with forecasters predicting more than 30 inches to fall.

It's already being dubbed Snowmageddon and that's snow joke.

US figure skaters Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are trapped in Philadelphia, where flights have been grounded until further notice.

They were hoping to jet out tomorrow - but their flight has already been cancelled.

"Got a call from travel agent saying we may not get out of Philly in time for opening ceremonies," tweeted Belbin.

Great Britain's bobsleigh team - including world champions Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke - are currently based in upstate New York at the Lake Placid venue of the 1984 Winter Olympics.

However, they had no plans to arrive in Vancouver until nearer their event, which is scheduled to start in 11 days time.

UPDATED (21.10pm pacific time): British ice dance hopefuls Sinead and John Kerr were temporarily stranded in New York and missed their pre-competition press conference as snow caused chaos. However, the Scottish siblings are expected to land in Vancouver in the next few hours.