Snow snarls Chicago flights
Windy City sees blizzard conditions as Northeast prepares
A winter storm that shut down air traffic in Chicago was predicted to move east, bringing heavy snow to Boston and ensuring that New York had a slushy commute to start the work week.
Blizzard conditions developed in Chicago — where more than a foot had fallen by Sunday evening. The storm was predicted to move east through Sunday night, bringing deep snow to Detroit, Cleveland and Boston and slush to New York City.
Heavy snow was expected to change to rain in New York by this morning, and the city could end up with 2 to 5 inches, said Joe Pollina, a Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, N.Y. Later today, cold air is expected to bring freezing rain.
“The morning commute will be impacted by the snow, and the evening commute will be impacted by the ice,” Pollina said.
Winter storm warnings, meaning snow may make travel dangerous, stretched from eastern Nebraska to southern Maine. As of 4:20 p.m. Sunday in New York, 2,300 U.S. flights had been canceled, according to Flight-Aware, a Houston-based airline-tracking company.
The majority of those trips were in and out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, the company said. At least 1,384 flights had been scrubbed for today.
“I think you have to plan for delays all day at the airports, and things are not going to get any better until Tuesday,” said Bernie Rayno, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pa.
Parts of the northern U.S. from the Midwest to the Atlantic might get 6 to 12 inches of snow, said Bruce Terry, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md.
Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Boston will be affected “significantly,” Terry said. Commuter-rail authorities in Chicago and Boston warned residents that delays are probable as the storm sweeps through.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that a storm watch would be in effect from 7 p.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. today. The wind chill index might drop as low as minus 20 degrees tonight.
The mayor said city schools will be open today and subways will continue to operate. The city suspended alternate-side parking today to ease snow removal.
Unlike his New York counterpart, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh closed schools and declared a snow emergency beginning at 6 a.m. today.
“Boston — they are in it and I think they are going to get up to a foot,” Rayno said.
Jury selection in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was suspended for today.
Proceedings are scheduled to resume Tuesday. They also were postponed during last week’s blizzard.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner cautioned against any travel and put state agencies on alert.
The Illinois Department of Transportation dispatched 350 trucks to clear and salt Chicago-area roadways ahead of today’s morning rush hour, and the city said late Sunday that it was sending out 150 more pieces of heavy equipment for road work.
The weather led to power failures, including roughly 10,000 ComEd customers in Illinois on Sunday evening, most of them in suburban Chicago. The weather cut power to nearly 8,000 northern Indiana homes and businesses.
Chicago Public Schools announced Sunday night that today’s classes were canceled because of the danger for children traveling to school. The district, the nation’s third largest, said it expected that classes would resume Tuesday.
In Nebraska, a truck driver and a 62-year-old woman were killed in separate traffic accidents on snowy roads. In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said a 64-year-old man with a history of cardiac problems was found dead Sunday in his garage after shoveling snow.
In central Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil may emerge from his burrow to snow, sleet and freezing rain, Rayno said. Today is the day the groundhog supposedly comes out of hibernation. If he sees his shadow on emerging, tradition says there will be six more weeks of winter.
The storm is set to arrive on the East Coast a week after a blizzard buried much of southern New England and Boston under at least two feet of snow and dropped 9.8 inches in New York City’s Central Park.
Boston has a 75 percent chance of getting at least 8 inches of snow by Tuesday, the Weather Service said. The forecast for the city is for 10 to 14 inches by the time the storm leaves.
An extra foot of snow will make cleanup from the previous storm even more difficult, Terry said.
Rayno said that after the current storm clears out, there is a chance another system will develop later in the week. Information for this article was contributed by Brian K. Sullivan and David Carey of Bloomberg News and by Sophia Tareen, Scott McFetridge, Jeff Baenen, Verena Dobnik, Josh Funk, David N. Goodman and staff members of The Associated Press.