Northeast hit by heavy snow again
Warnings include central, eastern Pa.
Another round of heavy, wet snow — the second severe winter storm in less than a week — descended on the Northeast late Tuesday.
The forecast on Tuesday remained unclear, with meteorologists unable to pin down where exactly the rain might turn into snow. But the Northeast region began to brace for impact.
The storm was set to arrive as crews are still restoring power from last week’s nor’easter and could dump as much as 8 inches of snow on New York and Boston, said Rob Carolan, a meteorologist with Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, N.H.
The heaviest amounts are expected to fall Wednesday, potentially bedeviling the evening storm warnings commute. stretch Winter from eastern Pennsylvania to Maine. Areas further northwest of the coast could get as much as 14 inches.
“Travel will be very difficult to impossible, including during the evening commute on Wednesday,” the National Weather Service said in New York’s storm warning. “Be prepared for significant reductions in visibility at times.”
Pennsylvania’s governor ramped up staffing to cope with a winter storm that’s expected to hammer parts of the state still recovering from high winds, rain and snow several days ago.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday announced a state of emergency and said additional workers at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s monitor conditions. headquarters will The disaster emergency declaration applies to dozens of counties in central and eastern Pennsylvania. Philadelphia’s already closed schools and municipal offices for Wednesday. Officials are banning multiple types of trailers on sections of interstate and positioning plows and tow trucks. Tens of thousands remains without power of customers fromlast week’s nor’easter. “The snow will be fairly wet and heavy, so that combined with wind could lead to additional power outages,” said Joe Dellicarpini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Taunton, Mass. The first flakes could start falling in New York before midnight Tuesday, but the worst of it likely will hit between Wednesday morning and afternoon, Mr. Carolan said. Exceptionally high tides and power outages linger throughout the Northeast from last week’s storm, which at its peak grounded thousands of flights, halted Amtrak rail services and left more than 2 million customers in the dark from Ohio to Maine.
Damages from the storm may exceed more than $1 billion in insured losses, according to Jonathan Adams and Derek Han, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.
The impending storm won’t be as potent in terms of destructive winds and waves, but it will probably mean more snow for people living along the coast. That is likely to exacerbate power outages and delay flights.
More than 48,000 customers are still without power across the Northeast, according to utility and state websites. There are about 25,000 in the Hudson Valley and Albany, which are likely in the path of the worst of the storm, Mr. Carolan said. Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in Westchester, Putnam, Sullivan and Dutchess counties after last week’s storm.
Late-season storms can actually do more damage to power lines than storms that hit in the dead of winter, according to Shunondo Basu, meteorologist and natural gas analyst for Bloomberg NewEnergy Finance.
The warmer air is able to hold more moisture, which bringsa heavier, wetter snow — and sleet — than the fluffy flakes that tend to fall in January.
Philadelphia could get 5 inches, while cities and towns to the northwest may get double that, the weather service said. In New York, White Plains and points north could get more than a foot — perhaps as much as two feet — of snow.