Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump chimed in on the weather Thursday, citing the cold wave sweeping across much of the central and northeastern United States as justification for his controversial move to leave the global climate change pact.

"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!"

The bitter December chill in the US and Canada has forced people indoors, stranded motorists with dead car batteries and complicated firefighting duties.

The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang had also tweeted: "US to be coldest region in world relative to normal over next week."

"Please note rest of world will be much warmer than normal lest anyone try to claim pocket of cold in US debunks global warming, which they will invariably and irresponsibly do," the weather reporters said.

Trump, 71, has dismissed global warming as a Chinese hoax, vowed to quit the 2015 Paris accord and tapped fossil fuel allies to key environmental posts.

His administration also dropped climate change from the list of national security threats.

This month's cold wave caps a year that saw ferocious hurricanes, heat waves, floods and wildfires wreak global havoc.