Residents of the U.S. Northeast are girding for a “crippling and potentially historic” storm that could bury communities from northern New Jersey to southern Maine in about 60 centimetres of snow.
The National Weather Service said the nor’easter would bring heavy snow, powerful winds and widespread coastal flooding starting Monday and through Tuesday. A blizzard warning was issued for a 400-kilometre stretch of the Northeast, including New York and Boston.
Government officials began to activate emergency centres on Sunday as professional sports teams, schools and utilities hastily revised their schedules and made preparations.
“This could be a storm the likes of which we have never seen before,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference in a Manhattan sanitation garage where workers were preparing plows and salt for the massive cleanup on about 9,600 kilometres of city roadways.
‘In addition to heavy snow, with blizzard warnings, there’s a big threat of high, damaging winds, and that will be increasing Monday into Tuesday. A lot of blowing, drifting and such.’— Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with College Park, Md., weather service
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker warned residents to prepare for roads that are “very hard, if not impossible, to navigate,” power outages and possibly even a lack of public transportation.
Boston is expected to get 45 to 60 centimetres of snow, with up to 60 centimetres or more west of the city, and Philadelphia could see up to a foot, the weather service said.
The Washington area expected only a couple of inches, with steadily increasing amounts as the storm heads north.
Airlines brace for shutdowns
“We do anticipate very heavy snowfall totals,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the weather service in College Park, Maryland. “In addition to heavy snow, with blizzard warnings, there’s a big threat of high, damaging winds, and that will be increasing Monday into Tuesday. A lot of blowing, drifting and such.”
A storm system diving out of the Midwest has the potential to blast Philadelphia up to Massachusetts and Maine with snow beginning late Sunday night into Monday and intensifying greatly well into Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. (Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press)
Wind gusts of 120 km/h or more are possible for coastal areas of Massachusetts, and up to 80 km/h further inland, Oravec said.
Airlines prepared to shut down operations along the East Coast, leading to the expected cancellation of about 1,700 flights scheduled for Monday, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.
A storm system driving out of the Midwest brought several centimetres of snow to Ohio on Sunday. A new low pressure system was expected to form off the Carolina coast and ultimately spread from Washington, D.C., to Maine for a “crippling and potentially historic blizzard,” the weather service said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged commuters to stay home on Monday and warned that mass transit and roadways could be closed before the evening rush hour, even major highways such as the New York Thruway, Interstate 84 and the Long Island Expressway.
In New York City, the Greater New York Taxi Association offered free cab service for emergency responders trying to get to work, and disabled and elderly residents who become stranded.
The New York Rangers decided to practice Monday afternoon at the Islanders’ home arena on Long Island instead of at their own training facility just outside New York City. They’ll stay overnight on Long Island for Tuesday’s game against their rival — if it’s still held.
The Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots expected to be out of town by the time the storm arrives in Boston. The team plans to leave Logan Airport at 12:30 p.m. ET Monday for Phoenix, where the temperature will reach 21 C.
Snowstorm vs. blizzard: What’s the difference?
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for a huge swath of the U.S.’s Northeast corridor, from New Jersey up to Massachusetts, meaning potential white-out conditions as heavy snow swirls amid gusting wind
The weather service says a blizzard includes sustained or frequent wind gusts of 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) or greater and considerable falling snow that lasts for at least three hours. This storm is expected to last up to 36 hours in some locations, forecasters said.
Air travel
Airlines are cancelling thousands of flights into and out of East Coast airports as a major snowstorm packing up to three feet of snow barrels down on the region.
Almost 1,900 flights scheduled for Monday have been cancelled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Nearly 1,800 additional flights have been scrapped for Tuesday.
Most major airlines are allowing customers whose flights are cancelled in the next few days to book new flights without paying a penalty. Customers ticketed on flights to dozens of Eastern airports are generally eligible for the allowance, though specific terms vary by airline.
