WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday made light of climate change science as an Arctic chill settled on much of the central and northeastern United States and Canada, forcing people indoors, stranding motorists with dead car batteries and complicating firefighting duties.

In the United States, the National Weather Service said that "dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills" were pummeling much of the central and eastern part of the country.

"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year´s Eve on record," Trump tweeted from his Mar a Lago resort in Florida, where he is on holiday vacation.

"Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier warned residents to prepare for "dangerously cold weather," with below-normal temperatures expected to be between minus 12.7 C and minus 6.6 C through Saturday.

Trump's missive quickly drew Twitter eye-rolls from many users exasperated that the Republican US president could use cold weather to mock the science behind climate change.

"Weather is not the same as climate," tweeted Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington state. "The president should be able to understand that. It isn´t hard."

Jon Foley, executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, wrote: "Believe it or not, global climate change is very real even if it´s cold outside Trump Tower right now."

"Just like there is still hunger in the world, even if you just had a Big Mac."