About 30 million people in New York City and across the Northeast are under blizzard warnings as a strong winter storm is set to bring heavy, wet, wind-driven snow beginning Sunday, as reported by Bloomberg.
More than 3,000 flights have been canceled at major New York City airports with dangerous conditions forecast to slam the Northeast on Sunday, according to several reports.
Meanwhile, major airlines suspended flights Saturday at key hubs, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, as well as airports in Philadelphia and Boston. The number of cancellations is expected to surge once the snow begins falling, FOX Weather reported.
Widespread power outages are also possible, Bloomberg reported.
Here’s what National Weather Service predicted
The National Weather Service raised its estimate of how severe the storm could become, after earlier forecasts had suggested it would be far less intense just a few days ago, as reported by Associated Press.
The weather service said 1 to 2 feet (about 30 to 61 centimeters) of snow was possible in many areas as it issued blizzard warnings for New York City and Long Island, Boston and coastal communities in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Flooding was also possible in parts of New York and New Jersey, it said, as reported by AP.
“While we do get plenty of these nor’easters that produce heavy snow and strong impacts, it’s been several years since we saw one of this magnitude across this large of a region in this very populated part of the country,” said Cody Snell, a Meteorologist at the service’s Weather Prediction Center, as reported by AP.
Snell said the storm would arrive Sunday morning in areas around Washington before stretching toward Philadelphia and New York City and reaching Boston in the evening, the report noted.
The weather service said the storm could begin as rainfall in some places before worsening, with the heaviest snowfall expected at night and as much as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow per hour at times in some areas, before tapering off by Monday afternoon.
The weather service warned that the storm, with steady winds of 25 to 35 mph (40 to 56 kph) would “make travel dangerous, if not impossible. Scattered downed tree limbs and power outages possible due to snow load and strong winds.”
Mamdani reacts
Authorities rushed to get ready for a storm that meteorologists had expected just days earlier to cause far less disruption.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city would expand on efforts it used to deal with a major snowfall weeks ago. But officials held off on deciding whether to open schools Monday for the time being.
“I am asking all New Yorkers to stay inside and stay off the roads for your safety,” Mamdani said at a news conference Saturday. “These have the potential to be even more hazardous conditions than we faced the last time around.”
“We saw on Friday there was expectation that the likelihood was that we were going to face maybe 3 to 4 inches of snow. Quickly that then changed,” Mamdani said, as reported by Associated Press, adding “So we want to make sure that we make a decision based on up-to-date and accurate information.”
NYC Infrastructure
New York City officials will deploy 2,600 sanitation workers in 12-hour shifts as snowfall begins Sunday morning, though there “will be no cleanups over the course of this storm,” Mamdani said, as reported by Bloomberg.
“Our focus over the course of this storm is not going to be on physical infrastructure,” he said. “It’s going to be on people getting homeless New Yorkers inside.”
With temperatures hovering around freezing, the snowfall is expected to be dense and heavy. Paired with wind gusts reaching up to 55 miles per hour, it will likely bring down trees and power lines, leading to outages.
Road conditions will be hazardous, and the National Weather Service advises anyone who must travel to carry a survival kit.
Amtrak said Saturday that it will make service adjustments to some routes in the Northeast Corridor on Sunday and Monday.
Winter storm in Washington
The storm is expected to begin as rain in Washington early Sunday before switching to snow there as well as in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Washington could see around 3 inches of accumulation. In New York, snow is forecast to start late Sunday morning and intensify, with the heaviest snowfall likely overnight into Monday.
“Everything will be closed on Monday,” said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center, as reported by Bloomberg.
“There will be no Monday morning commute for New York City, Boston and along that whole I-95 corridor.”
(With inputs from agencies)
