The powerful winter storm in Washington forced US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to divert his Maryland-bound fight to Florida, ABC News reported.

Carter was heading home from a five-day trip to Paris and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But his high-tech aircraft - known as the Doomsday Plane - wasn't able to land at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland as originally planned.

Instead, the plane took a left turn and headed south. Carter was rerouted to Tampa, Florida, where he will wait until he is able to fly into the nation's capital.