A CHRISTMAS storm caused power outage for thousands in Massachusetts as the east coast was hit by gales, floods and even tornadoes.

The powerful storm unleashed extreme weather conditions along the East Coast that began on Christmas Eve, bringing strong winds, flooding and even the chance of tornados in some areas.

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC saw disruptive weather Thursday night into Christmas Day.

Thousands of households in Massachusetts woke up without power on Christmas Day following winds of 65mph.

As of 6.45am 4,000 houses were powerless, according to the MEMA outage map.

"Just be prepared that you could be without power for a day, potentially two days with a storm like this," MEMA Director Samantha Phillips said.

A tornado watch was issued in Grand Strand and Pee Dee, South Carolina, as of 10pm on Christmas Eve.

Over 900 customers in the area also experienced power outages.

The latest storm comes just one week after winter Storm Gail buried parts of the Northeast with several feet of snow and left six people dead.

Heavy rainfall and flooding were large concerns for parts of the South and East up to Maine, according to The Weather Channel.

Winds, that reached up to 60 miles per hour, stretched from North Carolina to Maine on Christmas Eve.

"By Thursday this system could bring snow to the Great Lakes and heavy rain to much of the East Coast," CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will likely get snow on Christmas Day, and snow flurries could travel down to Atlanta on Thursday night into Friday morning.

The East Coast will see a dramatic temperature swing as parts of New Jersey and New York City hitting the high 50s on Christmas Eve, but will fall to below freezing by Christmas night.

As of Wednesday, blizzard warnings were issued in parts of the Midwest region, including South and North Dakota as well as Minnesota.

The National Weather Service issued warnings of high winds and temperatures will fall to below zero.

Chicago dipped to the lower 20s on Thursday and Friday. 

In Atlanta, highs approached 60 degrees on Thursday but dropped down to the 30s on Christmas Day. 

Christmas temperatures will likely be 15 degrees below normal in Washington DC, Indianapolis and Cleveland, and 10 degrees below normal in South Florida.

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