The northeastern United States was walloped by a fierce winter storm on Saturday that dropped more than two feet (60 cm) of snow on some areas while packing high winds, prompting thousands of flight cancellations and leading governors in Rhode Island and other states to curtail access to the roads.
About 1,400 U.S. flights were canceled early on Sunday, with much quieter weather expected on Sunday. Several U.S. states had declared emergencies in response to the storm, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolinas and was forecast to continue depositing snow into Sunday morning as it moved north to Maine.
About a million people across the Northeast were under winter weather alerts early Sunday, down from the nearly 16 million who were affected by such alerts Saturday night.
The total number of flight cancellations within, into, or out of the United States was about 1,400 as of 10:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT), according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. Another 647 U.S.-related flights were delayed, the data showed.
The LaGuardia Airport and the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and the Boston Logan International Airport each had over 200 flight cancellations as of early Sunday.
The fierce winter storm on Saturday dropped more than 2 feet (60 cm) of snow on some areas while packing high winds, prompting thousands of flight cancellations and leading governors in Rhode Island and other states to curtail access to the roads.
The storm prompted Amtrak to halt its passenger rail service across much of the region, and the main commuter line for Long Island to suspend its operations for at least one full day.
New York’s Long Island town of Islip was the hardest hit statewide, Governor Kathy Hochul told WCBS-TV on Sunday. “We’re going to give them the golden snowball award for this week, this storm. They were at 24.7 inches,” Hochul said.
Much quieter weather was expected across the U.S. East Coast on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
“This is going to be a historic blizzard,” Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune told Reuters. “It’s the power of the wind and the amount of snow that makes this one particularly dangerous.”
The storm hit nearly 44 years to the day after a monstrous blizzard crippled New England in 1978. Dumping more than 27 inches (70 cm) of snow on Boston, that storm killed dozens of people, trapped others in their homes and shut down major highways for a week.
According to CNN, here are some notable snowfall records:
# Atlantic City, New Jersey: The city crushed its all-time January snowfall record by Saturday, reaching a monthly total of 33.2 inches of snow. The prior monthly record of 20.3 inches was set in January 1987. The city’s 14 inches of snow Saturday also beat its previous record for the calendar date, which was set in 2014 at 7.3 inches.
# Boston: Logan International Airport tallied at least 23.6 inches of snow by Saturday night, said the NWS, making Saturday the snowiest January day Boston has recorded and tying the record for biggest 1-day snowfall total. The previous record was set on January 27.
# Central Park, New York: The iconic park saw 7.3 inches on Saturday, beating the previous record for January 29 of 4.7 inches set in 1904.
# Philadelphia: The city was hit with 5.8 inches of snow Saturday, beating the previous calendar day record of 5 inches set on January 29, 1904.
In neighboring Canada, the worst of the cold weather was over in Atlantic Canada, but many communities were dealing with residual blowing snow, rain, strong winds and storm surge on Sunday, according to the Weather Network channel.
The conditions on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket were improving after the powerful nor’easter flooded roads and caused a large power outage on Saturday, the local police department said. The water was deep enough for two high school students to row a canoe along a flooded street, according to a photo posted on social media.
In Massachusetts, about 53,000 out of 2.6 million customers were without electricity as of early Sunday, according to the PowerOutage.us website. (Reuters)
You must be logged in to post a comment.