Intense snowstorm wallops New York City, northeastern U.S.
· Toronto Sun
Millions of people in the northeastern United States are trapped at home as an intense snowstorm struck on Monday, with heavy snow and strong winds leading to whiteout conditions, triggering road travel bans and blizzard warnings.
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In the early morning hours, snow fell at a rate of 5 to 7.6 centimetres an hour from New York through Massachusetts. Some areas got more than 30 centimetres of snow since Sunday, with wind gusts of more than 48 km/h causing low visibility.
Travel conditions were “nearly impossible,” the National Weather Service stated.
Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York reported 57 centimetres of snow as of Monday morning, while Coney Island was walloped with 40.6 centimetres.
Freehold, N.J., recorded 55.8 centimetres of snow, while New London, Conn., and North Kingstown, R.I., both got 43 centimetres of the white stuff.
Transportation suspended
Blizzard warnings were issued throughout the storm, with cellphones in New York City getting notifications on Sunday night for a non-emergency travel ban on all streets through Monday at noon, with Rhode Island and New Jersey getting similar restrictions.
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, more than 5,000 flights were cancelled for Monday, mostly in New York, New Jersey and Boston.
In some areas, public transit was halted.
Power outages were also rampant, with more than 400,000 customers without electricity along the East Coast on Monday, according to the power outages tracking website PowerOutage.us.
New York, Philadelphia and other cities, along with several states, declared emergencies.
‘Classic bomb cyclone’
The National Weather Service called the storm a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone is called when a storm drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours.
The snow is expected to taper off by Monday afternoon.
Public schools were closed in New York City and Boston on Monday, while Philadelphia switched to online learning.
Outreach workers braved the storm to convince homeless New Yorkers into shelters and warming centres.
A “potentially historic/destructive storm” was warned for the area southeast of the Boston-Providence corridor, with strong wind gusts causing whiteout conditions, the weather service noted.
“Winds like that, combined with heavy, wet snow, are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Boston office.
“That’s what we’re most concerned with, is the combination of those extreme snow amounts with that wind.”