It’s freezing and miserable

Massive storm, dubbed a ‘bomb cyclone,’ brings snow, wind and flooding

The first major snowstorm of the season hit the Northeast on Thursday, disrupting transit, closing schools and keeping people indoors with bitter cold and wind-blown snow that hurled sideways in places.

The storm, described as a “bomb cyclone” by some meteorologists, began in the South, dropping snow in areas that hadn’t seen it for decades.

The forecast calls for more frigid cold, with temperatures in the single digits and teens in many areas and wind chill as low as 30 degrees below zero.

Several governors declared states of emergency, and blizzard warnings were in effect up and down the East Coast. At least 4,215 U.S. flights were canceled, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio closed all public schools and urged people to stay off the roads as much as possible. In Massachusetts, all non-emergency state employees stayed home and courts were closed. In Boston, to ensure a safe arrival, nurses and doctors were transported to hospitals by police officers.

There were reports of coastal flooding. In the seaside town of Duxbury, Mass., firefighters launched several water rescues — on land. “This isn’t the ocean,” a public information officer for the fire department tweeted. “Streets completely underwater.” The accompanying photo showed a fire truck sloshing through the city.

Pete Costello, the assistant curator at Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Mass., said although some of the animals stayed indoors to keep warm, others were doing just fine. Those would be the yaks, reindeer, arctic foxes and snow leopards. “This is really their time of year,” he said.

It also was unseasonably cold along the coasts of Southern states. Images posted on social media from Florida showed orange and grapefruit trees speckled with snowflakes.

In Tallahassee, in northern Florida, residents saw snow for the first time in nearly 30 years. The occurrence of snow there in January was even more unusual — the first time since official weather records started being kept in 1885.

Carolyn Cole Los Angeles Times NEW YORK An umbrella provides a woman some protection from the elements in Manhattan. “This is not a normal snowstorm,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “It is snow plus very high gusts of wind, and that changes the situation dramatically.” More than 2,000 f...

John Cetrino EPA/Shutterstock BOSTON Firefighter Justin Plaza pulls a motorist to dry land. Cars were stuck in floodwaters throughout the city. Tides in Boston Harbor equaled levels recorded during the historic blizzard of 1978. In Quincy, Mass., the mayor said: “The city has been...

Mark Makela Getty Images ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Thom Meyers, 67, uses a cane to traverse snow-covered streets. Meteorologists say the storm originated in the South. The forecast calls for more frigid cold in the Northeast, with temperatures in the single digits and teens in many...