Extreme Weather Slams US from Coast to Coast: California Ablaze, East Coast Slapped by Snow

WASHINGTON – It's a tale of two extremes: Out west, wildfires continue to ravage southern California while the East Coast shovels out from snow and ice.

The Thomas fire is now the fifth largest wildfire in California state history, scorching more than 300 square miles and prompting evacuations in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.

"It's really terrifying thinking that the house that I only know and that I grew up in might get burned down and I might not ever see it again," one woman told reporters.

The fires have destroyed nearly 800 homes and buildings and forced more than 200,000 people to flee from their homes in the last week.

Roughly 5,700 firefighters are deployed and they're up against extremely dry conditions with just 10 percent containment. No rain is forecasted in this part of California for the next week.

On the other side of the country people are dealing with ice and snow.

More than 100 million Americans are feeling the effects of this latest winter blast with lake-effect snow from the Great Lakes falling from Indiana to New York.

Thunder-snow hit some communities and in Buffalo they saw near white-out conditions at the NFL game between the Bills and the Indianapolis Colts.

Slick roads also caused hundreds of crashes over the weekend.

And the usually mild South is still reeling too. At one point, roughly 300,000 people were without power.

Behind all of this, another big chill is on the way for a huge stretch of the country.