NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has captured images of “Snowzilla” from a different angle — tweeting pictures from space.

The blizzard which killed at least 19 people and brought New York and Washington to a standstill has today begun to clear.

Forecasters said the storm dumped more than 56 centimetres of snow on the paralysed capital, and the 68 centimetres that fell in New York’s Central Park was the second-highest accumulation in the city since records began in 1869.

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Kelly was asked questions on the blizzard photographs during an interview session on Reddit.

A photo of the blizzard as the sun rises. Photo: Scott Kelly

Despite the obvious beauty captured in the images, Kelly said the most powerful thing he had seen from space was an aurora.

“Probably this one day where we had incredible aurora completely around the space station,” he said.

“Seeing North and South Korea from space is pretty profound. Hurricane Patricia was pretty profound as well.”

During his Reddit chat he also answered a range of questions from the serious to the silly.

Q: Why do you always have your arms folded?

A: Your arms don’t hang by your side in space like they do on Earth because there is no gravity. It feels awkward to have them floating in front of me. It is just more comfortable to have them folded. I don’t even have them floating in my sleep, I put them in my sleeping bag.

Q: Could you tell us something unusual about being in space that many people don’t think about?

A: The calluses on your feet in space will eventually fall off. So, the bottoms of your feet become very soft like newborn baby feet. But the top of my feet develop rough alligator skin because I use the top of my feet to get around here on the space station when using foot rails.

Q: What’s the creepiest thing you’ve encountered while on the job?

A: Generally it has to do with the toilet. Recently I had to clean up a gallon-sized ball of urine mixed with acid.

Q: What one thing will you forever do differently after your safe return home?

A: I will appreciate nature more.

Q: Do you ever feel alone/afraid?

A: I don’t feel alone or afraid. I was up here for six weeks as the only American on the US side of the space station and I was fine. I have been afraid when the ground has called and privatised the audio generally meaning something bad has happened. So I have been a little afraid.

Kelly has been living aboard the International Space Station since March of last year and recently just passed 300 days in space.