Blizzard Warnings Blanket US East Coast, Over 1500 Flights Cancelled

The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center said low pressure over the Southeast would move to the southern Mid-Atlantic coast by Sunday morning and deepen rapidly by evening before tracking northeastwards along the Eastern Seaboard.

In its latest short-range forecast discussion, the centre warned of a "Major Winter Storm for the Northeast" and "Heavy snow for the northern Mid-Atlantic and Northeast".

"Snowfall rates over 1 inch per hour will occur at times, with snowfall totals of 1 to 2 feet, resulting in near-impossible travel conditions," it said, adding that the system would produce "widespread significant impacts across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Sunday into Monday as a low-pressure system rapidly intensifies off the Mid-Atlantic coast".

Blizzard conditions are forecast along coastal areas from Delaware through south-eastern New England. Forecasters cautioned that "sharply reduced visibility will make travel extremely treacherous across these areas," with wind gusts of 40 to 70 miles per hour expected from coastal New Jersey into south-eastern New England.

The combination of heavy, wet snow and strong winds "will likely result in scattered to numerous power outages," the Weather Prediction Center said, warning also of moderate coastal flooding and inundation of roads and property near the waterfront from Delaware to Cape Cod.

According to The New York Times, blizzard warnings were issued for much of the coastal Northeast, including New York City, which could see as much as 2 feet of snow. It is the first blizzard warning issued for New York City since 2017, the newspaper reported.

The Weather Service warned that travel will be "dangerous, if not impossible" as snowfall rates of one to two inches per hour, or more, are expected on Sunday night.

More than 1,500 flights across the United States had been cancelled for Sunday as of Saturday night, with hundreds called off at LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports, the newspaper reported.

The Wall Street Journal said the major winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow and strong winds across the Northeast, causing forecasters to issue the first blizzard warning in New York City in nearly a decade. Wind gusts of as much as 70 miles an hour are expected, with the potential to cause flight cancellations, downed trees, and power outages.

In the Washington, D.C., region, The Washington Post reported that a powerful coastal storm is poised to bring rain, snow, and wind to the area Sunday into Monday, with a winter weather advisory issued for the Beltway area late Sunday afternoon into Monday morning. Accumulation potential ranges from just an inch or two in the far southern suburbs and around the city to up to a half foot or so north and north-east of the Beltway.

The United States regularly experiences powerful winter storms along the Atlantic seaboard during February, when cold continental air masses interact with relatively warmer Atlantic waters.

- IANS