US Northeast braces for major snowstorm this weekend
Published on Feb 08, 2013
12:12 AM
BOSTON (AP) - A major winter storm is heading towards the US Northeast, with up to 0.6 metres of snow expected for a Boston-anchored region that has seen mostly bare ground this winter, the National Weather Service said.
It will be a rare and major storm, the type that means "you can't let your guard down," said Louis Uccellini, director of the weather agency's National Centres for Environmental Prediction.
"This has the potential for being a dangerous storm, especially for Massachusetts into northeast Connecticut and up into Maine," Uccellini said.
The snow will start on Friday morning, with the heaviest amounts dumped that night and into Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
A coastal flooding watch was in effect for some shore communities in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York's Long Island - just outside New York City.
Blizzard threatens NYC, north-eastern US
Published on Feb 08, 2013
6:00 AM
Vehicles make their way through a ground blizzard on a highway leading to Denver, Colorado with the city skyline barely seen in the background on Jan 30, 2013. -- PHOTO : REUTERS
BOSTON (AP) - A blizzard of potentially historic proportions threatened to strike the Northeast with a vengeance on Friday, with up to 0.6m of snow forecast along the densely populated corridor from the New York City area to Boston and beyond.
Halfway through what was looking like a merciful winter, people stocked up on food and other storm supplies, and road crews along the East Coast readied salt and sand ahead of what forecasters warned could be one for the record books.
Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, called off school on Friday, and airlines canceled more than 500 flights and counting, with the disruptions certain to ripple across the United States (US).
"Everybody's going to get plastered with snow," said Massachusetts-based National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Dunham.
The snow is expected to start on Friday morning, with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 105kph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.
New York City was expecting up to 355mm of snow. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said plows and 250,000 tons of salt were being put on standby.
"We hope forecasts are exaggerating the amount of snow, but you never can tell," he said.
Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Jersey and New York's Long Island, as well as portions of the New England region, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The warnings extended into New Hampshire and Maine.
In New England, it could prove to be among the top 10 snowstorms in history, and perhaps even break Boston's record of 700mm, set in 2003, forecasters said. The storm is arriving just after the 35th anniversary of the blizzard of 1978, which paralysed New England with more than 0.6m of snow and hurricane-force winds from Feb 5 to 7.
The last major snowfall in southern New England was well over a year ago - the Halloween storm of 2011.
In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College student Evan Diamond and other members of the ski team were getting ready for races at the Ivy League school's winter carnival.
"We're pretty excited about it because this has been an unusual winter for us," he said. "We've been going back and forth between having really solid cold snaps and then the rain washing everything away."