Newsman: Dangerous blizzard conditions and heavy snow are pounding the coastal Northeast U.S. on Saturday, with travel disrupted and more than 100,000 power outages and blizzard conditions near major cities.Extremely low temperatures Saturday night into Sunday along with Cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills across the East following the storm exacerbates an already dangerous situation for those without power and heat as warned. Airlines canceled more than 4,500 flights at some of the nation’s busiest airports, according to FlightAware, while Amtrak suspended or limited service on the Boston-to-Washington corridor.
The nor’easter smashed New York City and the Tri-State area to start the weekend, producing more than a foot of snow in some parts and near blizzard conditions at times.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday “This is a very serious storm. … This could be life-threatening,” “We are responding quickly and urgently”She said.
People from New York City to Maine awakened to half a foot of snow, while parts of Massachusetts, including Boston, were expected to experience up to 24 inches, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin.
“Expect whiteout conditions and nearly impossible travel at times,” the bulletin said, adding that snow rates of up to 2 to 4 inches per hour are expected on the Mid-Atlantic and New England coast.
People in the region woke up Saturday morning to snow accumulation already in the double digits, according to AccuWeather, and an additional 2 to 3 feet could fall in parts of New England.Multiple states measure more than a foot of snow. Blizzard warnings were issued across large swaths of the Northeast coast, but by Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service’s New York office had confirmed that blizzard criteria had been met in two areas: Suffolk County, N.Y., and New London, Conn.
The governors of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware declared states of emergency before the storm that began Friday night and had prepped National Guard members to join the cleanup. Only “essential personnel” were allowed to drive on Delaware roads in two of the state’s three counties, under an order by Gov. John Carney.
New York officials said Saturday that more than 76 percent of flights were canceled at John F. Kennedy International Airport and more than 98 percent at LaGuardia Airport. Newark Airport in New Jersey canceled more than 85 percent of flights.
This blizzard is predicted to be one of the worst snow storms to hit the region in four years. Power outages are likely to worsen throughout Saturday. In Massachusetts, 108,000 did not have power as of Saturday afternoon, while in New York state the number was 11,000, according to PowerOutage.us.
Parts of 10 states were under blizzard warnings Saturday: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Major cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston — as well as much of New England — are expected to bear the brunt of the storm, with wind gusts as high as 100 mph in some areas. Parts of New York and New Jersey confirmed blizzards Friday night and Saturday morning, according to local NWS reports.
Total snowfall is expected to be more than 12 inches along most of the Northeast coast and 24 inches in Massachusetts, including the Boston area. Snowfall totals were difficult to calculate because of drifting snow, but reports showed that in some areas of Massachusetts, snow was falling at a rate of 3 to 4 inches per hour.
In parts of Long Island, the totals exceeded a foot of snow as of Saturday afternoon, with the community of Bay Shore seeing a state high of at least 18.5 inches.
Other states across the Northeast saw snow totals of a foot or more by afternoon. Observers in Bayville, N.J., measured a state high of 19 inches. Areas of Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland all measured at least 14 inches or more.
Ledyard Center, Conn., measured 14.1 inches. In the state, wind gusts have been more than 60 mph and snow was falling at a rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour.
Flights and trains were canceled across the region
Travel in the region has also been severely disrupted. More than 3,500 flights within, into and out of the United States have been canceled on Saturday, according to Flight Aware. About 90% or more of flights out of Boston Logan, LaGuardia and Newark airports have been canceled.
And Amtrak trains operating along the East Coast between Washington, D.C., and Boston have been canceled.
The National Weather Service says the storm is a result of “bombogenesis,” which occurs when a “midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The result is a “bomb cyclone.”
