1 of 3 | A pedestrian walks by a lighted American Flag in New York City's Times Square on Monday as snow falls. A major nor'easter threatens to dump as much as 2 feet of snow on parts of the Tri-State area over the next two days. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Feb. 1 -- A powerful nor'easter hit the mid-Atlantic coast and northeast Monday, dumping more than a foot of snow in some areas and was expected to intensify Tuesday overnight, the National Weather Service said.
Areas from the northern Mid-Atlantic to southern New England experienced heavy snow and increasingly strong and gusty northeasterly winds together with increasing waves along the coast that were predicted to cause coastal flooding overnight during high tides, the NWS said in a Monday afternoon briefing.
A swath of more than 2 feet of snow could cover the region from Pennsylvania to Maine, including the metro areas of Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Unnecessary travel was discouraged by local emergency departments.
On the coast, the National Weather Service warned of flooding inundation between 2 and 3 feet above ground level at high tide in and around Long Island. Strong winds gusting between 35 to 55 mph were predicted, causing near blizzard conditions. Courts and schools were closed early in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
More than 4,000 power customers were experiencing outages in Long Island on Monday evening, according to Poweroutage.us. Another 1,400 customers were without power in Connecticut. Around 620 customers were without power in Rhode Island and fewer than 500 in Massachusetts.
New York City and New Jersey issued states of emergency and New York City put travel restrictions in place to keep nonessential personnel off the roads. Boston and area municipalities imposed parking bans.
Most flights in and out of New York City and Boston airports Monday were canceled due to the heavy snow.
Hundreds of outbound and inbound flights were canceled at the three main airports that serve the city -- John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty in New Jersey, as well as flights from the Boston area airports according to FlightAware.com. More than 80% of outbound flights were also canceled Monday from Boston Logan International Airport.
A low-pressure system centered off the New Jersey coast was slow-moving and dumping snow around 1 to 2 inches per hour, according to the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. Some parts of New York and New Jersey had already reported more than a foot of snow Monday afternoon and inland in Massachusetts, snowfall of up to 15 inches was predicted.
In New Jersey, more than 15 inches of snow were reported Monday afternoon in Passaic and Bergen counties. Snow will be the most extreme in New Jersey north of I-95 and in East Pennsylvania north of the PA turnpike.
Further south, in Washington, D.C., pandas at the National Zoo frolicked in the snow which also hit Baltimore and Philadelphia. Maryland is expecting 2 to 4 inches of snow Monday night and icy conditions, the national Weather Service said.
Even after snow showers fro this storm move toward Canada later Tuesday, on Wednesday, snow will continue to fall at times from far northeastern Pennsylvania and central New York to Maine, Accuweather predicted Tuesday.
