Powerful storm hits Northeast with heavy snow and high winds
By Chelsia Rose Marcius, Andy Newman and Yan Zhuan
NEW YORK – A winter storm that shut down flights and railways, left tens of thousands of customers without power and put over 40 million people under blizzard warnings across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic was intensifying early Monday (23).
The storm is expected to reach its heaviest overnight, with snowfalls of 2 or more inches per hour, the National Weather Service said. Late Sunday (22), forecasters warned that blizzard conditions were developing.
By early Monday, parts of New Jersey and New York had received a foot of snow within 12 hours. In total, more than 2 feet of snow is expected to fall in parts of New England, and the New York City region could receive at least 18 inches.
As of 1:00 a.m., more than 200,000 customers in the mid-Atlantic region were without power, mostly in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us.
As of early Monday, most flights in and out of the New York City region’s three major airports were cancelled. Over 4,200 commercial flights in the United States have already been cancelled, according to FlightAware.
The storm has also crippled mass transit in parts of the region. NJ Transit’s bus, train and light rail operations are completely stopped. In New York, the Long Island Rail Road shut down at 1:00 a.m.
If New York City’s snowfall hits 18 inches as predicted, the storm would be the heaviest since 2016, when a record-breaking blizzard dropped 27.5 inches on Central Park. The city’s 900,000 public school students were granted a rare snow day for Monday, with even remote classes cancelled.
Here’s what else to know:
— Full forecast: The storm’s wrath is concentrated along the coast, with expected totals inland considerably lower. More than a foot of snow is expected along a vast swath of the Eastern Seaboard from coastal Virginia to Maine. At least 1 1/2 feet is expected from Atlantic City to Boston. And over 2 feet is expected in patches of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
— Getting off the roads: Bans on nonessential driving were in effect until noon Monday in New York City, until 7:00 a.m. in New Jersey and indefinitely in parts of Delaware. DoorDash has halted deliveries in New York until at least noon Monday.
— Blizzard conditions: This storm is not yet officially a blizzard, but it’s close. A blizzard occurs when winds are at least 35 mph, snow is blowing or falling, and visibility is a quarter mile or less — all for at least three hours. That is likely to happen as winds pick up and conditions worsen, the weather service said.
— Bracing for an onslaught: The governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware declared states of emergency.
-New York Times
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