Powerful storm moves into north-east US bringing travel disruptions
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Parks Department officers check on men who had been living in a tent in a park in Queens as a winter storm intensified on Feb 22.
PHOTO: GRAHAM DICKIE/NYTIMES
Chelsia Rose Marcius and Andy Newman
NEW YORK – Heavy snow and gales barrelled through the north-east and mid-Atlantic on Feb 22 as a late-February blizzard shut down flights
More than 0.6m of snow is expected in parts of New England, and the New York City region could receive at least 0.45m.
In the evening of Feb 22, most residents remained indoors, heeding the advice of state and local officials
The storm is expected to reach its heaviest overnight, with snowfalls of 5cm or more per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 35 million people are under blizzard warnings. More than 0.3m of snow is expected along a vast swath of the eastern seaboard, from coastal Virginia to southern Maine.
At least 0.46m is expected from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Boston. And more than 0.6m is expected in patches of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
If New York City’s snowfall hits 0.45m as predicted, the storm would be the heaviest since 2016, when a record-breaking blizzard dropped 0.69m on Central Park.
The city’s 900,000 public school students have been granted a very rare snow day
As at 9pm, most flights in and out the New York City region’s three major airports were cancelled.
Nearly 4,000 commercial flights in the United States have already been cancelled, according to FlightAware.
The storm has already 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 is shutting down at 1am on Feb 23. Metro-North Railroad will continue to run on Feb 23, with limited service. On the subway, some express lines are running local, and buses are running with delays.
Fast-moving winds could also mean severe coastal flooding in parts of New Jersey and New York, including in the Bronx and Queens, said weather service and city officials. On Long Island, gusts could reach 112.6kmh.
Here’s what else to know:
Full forecast: The storm’s wrath is concentrated along the coast, with expected totals inland considerably lower. But some parts of the Appalachians and along Lake Erie are also expected to see more than 0.3m of snow. Accumulations of up to 25.4cm were reported in central New Jersey as at 9pm, with 12.7cm to 20.32cm across New York City and Long Island.
Getting off the roads: Bans on non-essential driving are now in effect until noon on Feb 23 in New York City, until 7am on Feb 23 in New Jersey and indefinitely in parts of Delaware. DoorDash has halted deliveries in New York until at least noon on Feb 23.
Power outages: Around midnight, more than 150,000 customers in the mid-Atlantic region were without power, mostly in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us
Bracing for an onslaught: The governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware declared states of emergency.
Bomb cyclone? The storm could be a bomb cyclone, which is a storm that strengthens rapidly, causing barometric pressure to drop at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. Forecasters said the pressure was predicted to drop 24 millibars in less than 12 hours with this storm. NYTIMES
