The combination of heavy snow, gale-force winds and coastal flooding is expected to make everything from dangerous to impossible in a large part of the region Monday.
“I want New Yorkers to hear me loud and clear – stay home and stay off the roads,” New York government Andrew Cuomo said he had declared 44 counties a state of emergency.
It could be a historic blizzard. As of 1 p.m., Central Park had reported 13.3 inches of snow (8 inches in the past 6 hours) and it was still snowing, the National Weather Service said. According to CNN meteorologists, it is possible that about two feet of snow will cover the city before the storm passes.
Covid-19 clinics in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and other places in the region were closed Monday due to the storm. De Blasio said appointments could be rescheduled, and NYC would be able to catch up quickly.
The storm also gurgled air traffic.
LaGuardia Airport canceled all commercial flights on Monday. Late this morning, 83% of JFK flights have been canceled and more cancellations are expected. At Newark Liberty, 75% of flights were canceled and AirTrain Service was suspended.
The hard hit places
New York City
The snowfall, which began late Sunday night, picked up intensity Monday, and avalanches could reach up to 2 to 3 inches per hour for the city, Long Island and southern Connecticut. This can create zero visibility conditions and make travel very dangerous.
The city government suspended the outdoor metro service on Monday at 2 p.m.
There are still buses, but the city and state are keeping a close eye on the situation, said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the New York City Transit Authority.
No empty tractor trailers or tandem trailers are allowed on bridges, and sidewalks on some bridges are closed.
Students in the city’s school system will take distance learning until Tuesday, de Blasio said.
“It’s a little challenging,” said Debra Paul, an East New York resident. “The lord had to hold me, because I lifted from the ground.”
The storm can drop to 21 centimeters by the end. If that happens, it’s the snow the city of New York has seen since Jan. 22-24, 2016, that dropped 27.5 inches over a two-day period. It would also confirm this storm as one of the most fertile winter storms for the city, taking it into the top-10 of the biggest snowstorm.
Washington DC
The city has already seen 2-3 inches of snow and finished a run of 710 consecutive days without an inch of snow or more, the second longest in the city going back to 1884.
On Monday, the precipitation turned into a mixture of snow and snow, covering roads with ice and increasing the driver danger. There is a chance of light snow on Tuesday morning before it ends in the afternoon. The district could see a total of 5 to 7 inches, the most in the last two years.
Philadelphia
A similar combination of rain and snow hit Philadelphia, where 2 to 3 inches of snow fell early Monday.
A rain-snow mixture in the morning will probably switch to snow again from Monday evening to Tuesday. The final total expected there is about a foot.
Boston
A wintery mix that begins Monday night will continue all day Tuesday and change to snow again Tuesday night. The National Weather Service said road conditions would deteriorate rapidly around noon on Monday.
Boston is accustomed to significant snowfall, and warned crew members to plow 2,000 miles of the city’s roads on Tuesday.
This is equivalent to the distance from Boston to Denver that was removed from the snow in less than 48 hours.
The location and trace of this multi-day storm will play an important role in the avalanches in the northeast. A storm near the shoreline will produce more rainfall, while one too far from the shore decreases moisture and falls to less snow.
Models suggest that this noreaster should be in the sweet spot for abundant moisture that can lead to significant snowfall. Another important factor was also in the game, which increased confidence in the effects of the storm.
According to CNN meteorologist Tom Sater, this storm is tapping cold Canadian air. “A strong high-pressure system is in place in southeastern Canada, which pushes very cold air far south enough and lasts long enough to predict the type of snowfall.”
Storm History
Nearly 75 million across a dozen states are under a winter alert or warning of a storm that erupted in the Middle East on Saturday. While there, the storm in Milwaukee fell more than a foot of snow.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong first name for the Government of New Jersey, Phil Murphy.