Millions of people in New York City and a large swathe of the US north-east were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings on Monday as a fierce winter storm barrelled into the region with heavy snowfall and high winds.
Mobile phones across New York City received alerts on Sunday night announcing a ban on non-emergency travel on all streets through to noon on Monday because of “dangerous blizzard conditions”. Rhode Island and New Jersey implemented similar restrictions.
Regional airports saw widespread cancellations and delays, and public transport was suspended in some areas.
Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine. Snow began falling on Sunday as the storm moved north, and the National Weather Service said up to two feet of snow was possible in many areas, along with low visibility. Officials in several states urged people to avoid venturing out.
Emergencies were declared in New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states stretching from Delaware to Massachusetts as officials mobilised readiness efforts.
Weather service meteorologist Frank Pereira said: “The storm is continuing to develop, and as it does, as it continues to strengthen and move to the north, we’re expecting conditions to rapidly deteriorate.”
Mr Pereira added that the storm could possibly become a bomb cyclone, which is when a storm drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours.
“We’re expecting it to drop by that magnitude at least over the course of the next 24 hours,” he said. “I think when all is said and done, it will meet the definition of a bomb cyclone.”
The weather service said some of the heaviest snow was expected to fall overnight, with as much as two inches of snow per hour accumulating at times in some areas, before tapering off by Monday afternoon.
New York City and Boston cancelled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia will switch to online learning. New York mayor Zohran Mamdani called it the “first old-school snow day since 2019”.
Various landmarks and cultural institutions announced closures on Monday, from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC. Broadway shows were cancelled on Sunday evening.
The weather service said the storm’s strong wind gusts could cause whiteout conditions and warned of a “potentially historic/destructive storm” south-east of the Boston-Providence corridor.
“Winds like that, combined with heavy, wet snow, are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Boston office. “That’s what we’re most concerned with, is the combination of those extreme snow amounts with that wind.”