‘Biggest storm’ in years rolls up East Coast
Snowfall expected to create dangerous travel conditions
NEW YORK – What promises to be the most significant wintry storm in years took aim at the East Coast early Wednesday.
Snow was likely to fall all the way from Georgia to Maine, which was expected to lead to dangerous travel conditions and isolated power outages, the National Weather Service said.
“All the ingredients are now coming together for our snowstorm, and I really don’t see a way out of this for many cities across the Northeast,” AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
A wide swath of the region was forecast to get a foot of snowfall accumulation, with some spots potentially getting up to 2 feet, the Weather Service said.
More than 50 million people were under a winter storm warning, including the New York City metro area, where over a foot of snow was possible. It was the first winter storm warning issued for New York City in over a year, the Weather Channel said.
“We have not had a lot of storms like this in the last few years, thank God. We’ve seen much less snowfall than we did a few years back,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “So, this could be the biggest storm in several years. ... Take this seriously.”
On Wednesday, parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic had light snow.
According to the Weather Service, the storm was moving into West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning and was forecast to trek to the New York area and beyond.
AccuWeather forecast that Washington, D.C., and Baltimore will get 1 to 3 inches and 2 to 4 inches, respectively. Philadelphia might get 4 to 8 inches, while Boston could see up to a foot of snow.
“The heaviest snowfall amounts from this system are currently forecast across central Pennsylvania, where as much as 2 feet of snow is possible,” forecasters at the Weather Service said.
In some areas, the snow expected Wednesday “would be more snow in one event than was seen all of last winter,” forecasters said.
Freezing rain, ice accumulation and heavy snow will lead to dangerous driving conditions, downed trees and power outages, the Weather Service said.
Travel in areas with the heaviest snow will like be “very dangerous, if not impossible,” forecasters added.
Officials said they didn’t expect the wintry blast to disrupt vaccine distribution, which began Monday for front-line health care workers. The first 3 million shots are being strictly limited to those workers and to nursing home residents.