Snowstorm threatens to paralyze the crowded Northeast US

[webfact]

Snowstorm threatens to paralyze the crowded Northeast US
By MEGHAN BARR

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 35 million people along the Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor rushed to get home and settle in Monday as a fearsome storm swirled in with the potential for hurricane-force winds and 1 to 3 feet of snow that could paralyze the Northeast for days.

Snow was blowing sideways with ever-increasing intensity in New York City by midafternoon as flurries began in Boston. Forecasters said the storm would build into a blizzard, and the brunt of it would hit late Monday and into Tuesday.

As the snow got heavier, much of the region rushed to shut down.

More than 6,500 flights in and out of the Northeast were canceled, and many of them may not take off again until Wednesday. Schools and businesses let out early. Government offices closed. Shoppers stocking up on food jammed supermarkets and elbowed one another for what was left. Broadway stages went dark.

"It's going to be ridiculous out there, frightening," said postal deliveryman Peter Hovey, standing on a snowy commuter train platform in White Plains, New York.

All too aware that big snowstorms can make or break politicians, governors and mayors moved quickly to declare emergencies and order the shutdown of streets and highways to prevent travelers from getting stranded and to enable plows and emergency vehicles to get through.

"This will most likely be one of the largest blizzards in the history of New York City," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio warned.

He urged New Yorkers to go home and stay there, adding: "People have to make smart decisions from this point on."

Up to now, this has been a largely snow-free winter in the urban Northeast. But this storm threatened to make up the difference in a single blow.

Boston was expected to get 2 to 3 feet of snow, New York 1½ to 2 feet and Philadelphia more than a foot.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for a 250-mile swath of the region, meaning heavy, blowing snow and potential whiteout conditions. Forecasters warned that the wind could gust to 75 mph or more along the Massachusetts coast and up 50 mph farther inland.

New York City's subways and buses planned to shut down by 11 p.m. In Massachusetts, ferry service to Martha's Vineyard was greatly curtailed and to Nantucket was suspended. Commuter railroads across the Northeast announced plans to stop running overnight, and most flights out of the region's major airports were canceled.

Authorities banned travel on all streets and highways in New York City and on Long Island and warned that violators could be fined $300. Even food deliveries were off-limits on the streets of takeout-friendly Manhattan. The governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island also slapped restrictions on nonessential travel.

"We learned the lesson the hard way," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, referring to instances in which motorists got stranded in the snow for 24 hours or more.

Nicole Coelho, a nanny from Lyndhurst, New Jersey, was preparing to pick up her charges early from school and stocking up on macaroni and cheese, frozen pizzas and milk at a supermarket.

"I'm going to make sure to charge up my cellphone, and I have a good book I haven't gotten around to reading yet," she said.

Shopping cart gridlock descended on Fairway, the gourmet grocery on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The meat shelves were all but bare, customers shoved past each other and outside on Broadway the checkout line stretched for a block as the wind and snow picked up. Store employees said it was busier than Christmastime.

Ben Shickel went grocery shopping in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and found shelves had been cleaned out.

"We're used to these big snowstorms in New England, but 2 to 3 feet all at once and 50 to 60 mph winds? That's a different story," he said.

In another possible sign that people were hunkering down at home, Fresh Direct, a grocery delivery service in the Northeast, said it had seen a rise in orders for Movie Day snacks such as microwave popcorn and chocolate chip cookies.

On Wall Street, however, the New York Stock Exchange stayed open and said it would operate normally Tuesday as well.

Coastal residents braced for a powerful storm surge and the possibility of damaging flooding and beach erosion, particularly in New Jersey and on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Officials in New Jersey shore towns warned people to move their cars off the streets and away from the water.

Utility companies across the region put additional crews on standby to deal with anticipated power outages.

The storm posed one of the biggest tests yet for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been in office for less than three weeks. He warned residents to prepare for power outages and roads that are "very hard, if not impossible, to navigate."

The storm interrupted jury selection in the Boston Marathon bombing case and forced a postponement in opening statements in the murder trial of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez in Fall River, Massachusetts.

The Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots got out of town just in time, leaving from Logan Airport around midday for Phoenix, where the temperature will reach the high 60s.

The Washington area was expecting only a couple of inches of snow. But the House postponed votes scheduled for Monday night because lawmakers were having difficulty flying back to the nation's capital after the weekend.
___

Associated Press writers Dave Collins and Pat Eaton-Robb in Hartford, Connecticut; David Porter in Lyndhurst, New Jersey; Jim Fitzgerald in White Plains; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey; Deepti Hajela, Jonathan Lemire and Verena Dobnik in New York; Albert Stumm in Philadelphia; and Marcy Gordon and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-27

[Scott]

I heard on the news that this might be one of the biggest snowfalls in NY history.

I hope people are well prepared.

[NeverSure]

It sounds awful. With the winds, millions could lose power and most of those lose heat. Snow weight can break off tree limbs and even fall trees. The list goes on and on but I wouldn't want to be in it.

[alex8912]

This one is going to be epic. I'm going to the beach today and send a couple pics home.

[tigermonkey]

It's amazing how the weather seems to miraculously stop at the US - Canada border. ...or perhaps Associated Press does not realize that there is anything in the world except the US of A. However, it seems that Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John and all of the 4 maritime provinces of Canada will be feeling the brunt of this monster storm also. In any case, all the best to all the Canadians and Yanks who will have to endure this event.

[Ulysses G.]

Canadians are used to it. They are snowed in 9 months per year.

[ThePlant]

''Give me what I want and I'll go away"

[bino]

It's amazing how the weather seems to miraculously stop at the US - Canada border. ...or perhaps Associated Press does not realize that there is anything in the world except the US of A. However, it seems that Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John and all of the 4 maritime provinces of Canada will be feeling the brunt of this monster storm also. In any case, all the best to all the Canadians and Yanks who will have to endure this event.

Yup. Exactly as you say; According to the Americans, the weather stops at the border in this snowfall forecast image from www.weather.com.

God speed to all of them to get through this.

I'm feeling rather smug sitting in Thailand right now!

[NeverSure]

It's amazing how the weather seems to miraculously stop at the US - Canada border. ...or perhaps Associated Press does not realize that there is anything in the world except the US of A. However, it seems that Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John and all of the 4 maritime provinces of Canada will be feeling the brunt of this monster storm also. In any case, all the best to all the Canadians and Yanks who will have to endure this event.

snow-forecast.jpg

Yup. Exactly as you say; According to the Americans, the weather stops at the border in this snowfall forecast image from www.weather.com.

God speed to all of them to get through this.

I'm feeling rather smug sitting in Thailand right now!

C'mon. Be fair. Look at American new channels and web sites and get American news. Canada is huge, needs separate news and has very good weather reporting for Canadians. Canada is in a different climate zone(s) and any storm may affect it differently.

[ThePlant]

Usually the UK and Western Europe gets the back end of severe weather systems which hammer the Eastern US.

[bino]

C'mon. Be fair. Look at American new channels and web sites and get American news. Canada is huge, needs separate news and has very good weather reporting for Canadians. Canada is in a different climate zone(s) and any storm may affect it differently.

Sure - I can appreciate all of that... I am in fact a proud Canadian.

However, weather.com is a "global" website- I can get weather information for Montreal, Bangkok or anywhere in the world.

And you are absolutely correct that Canada has our own very good weather reporting. The following snowfall prediction map image is on the CTV website right now. It speaks volumes and makes the point precisely. We don't discount our southern neighbors like they do to us!

Edited January 27, 2015 by bino

[Publicus]

Canadians are used to it. They are snowed in 9 months per year.

There are two seasons in Canada -- winter and August.

Youse guys over there on the right should move there cause there's no climate change at all, ever.

No warming, no heating, no greenhouse stuff, just the same same year after year, Canada.

Canada has its own weather people who are perfectly expert so they don't need attention and also this storm in the NE of the US is impacting as many people as there are in all of Canada, to include the global financial center of Manhattan, the heavily traveled NE infrastructure corridor and the like.

I can tell you I don't miss this crap at all, not at all.

No way I miss this madness.

[Scott]

Publicus, you are wrong. I lived in Canada; south of Winnipeg, not far from the US border. Canada has 4 season: June, July, August and Winter.

It's rather funny, because I remember that all the weather stopped at the US border, at least from the Canadian stations.

[rijb]

Publicus, you are wrong. I lived in Canada; south of Winnipeg, not far from the US border. Canada has 4 season: June, July, August and Winter.

It's rather funny, because I remember that all the weather stopped at the US border, at least from the Canadian stations.

That was my experience, growing up on the border, 40 miles south of Montreal.

[lovetotravel]

It's amazing how the weather seems to miraculously stop at the US - Canada border. ...or perhaps Associated Press does not realize that there is anything in the world except the US of A. However, it seems that Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John and all of the 4 maritime provinces of Canada will be feeling the brunt of this monster storm also. In any case, all the best to all the Canadians and Yanks who will have to endure this event.

Actually, that's about what's happening. The biggest snowfall is around Boston, with around 2 feet. Burlington is only projected to get 5-8 inches. Canada will not be feeling the brunt of this storm, but they will get some serious snow. As mentioned above, not too unusual for these Canadian areas, but a really big deal to those in NYC. It's projected to be a record snowfall. Thus the focus on NYC.

http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/video/timing-out-the-blizzard

Even CTV is talking a lot about the US Eastern seaboard.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/atlantic-canadians-warned-blizzards-are-coming-1.2206061

[NeverSure]

Publicus, you are wrong. I lived in Canada; south of Winnipeg, not far from the US border. Canada has 4 season: June, July, August and Winter.

It's rather funny, because I remember that all the weather stopped at the US border, at least from the Canadian stations.

How DARE they ignore US weather, LOL.

Canada needs different weather reporting because it's in a different ecological zone(s) and much farther North. It's huge and weather varies.

The people of Canada couldn't be nicer. It's a very polite culture. They do have expert weather reporting with a vast area of their own to cover.

[Publicus]

Publicus, you are wrong. I lived in Canada; south of Winnipeg, not far from the US border. Canada has 4 season: June, July, August and Winter.

It's rather funny, because I remember that all the weather stopped at the US border, at least from the Canadian stations.

Ah yes, made the drive from Boston to Montreal passing through Burlington at least 50 times some long while back, always in one of those months, June, July, August.

I went one time in September with a college buddy (Labor Day Weekend) and I felt like a popsicle it wuz so cold....my god...wuzzn't dressed for it actually.

I did get confused there for a moment as it's Russia that has a two season year of winter and August. Canada and Russia are at roughly the same latitude, as are the US and China respecitively.

This year the Russians are trying to sell their snow to China, India, Brazil, Thailand and a few other such places...get some American bucks.....

[thaibeachlovers]

It sounds awful. With the winds, millions could lose power and most of those lose heat. Snow weight can break off tree limbs and even fall trees. The list goes on and on but I wouldn't want to be in it.

Let's imagine the storm lasted a week, preventing snowploughs operating and cutting power and water. As it would take some time for the roads to be cleared after, how many would die in their freezing homes, trapped without water or any means to cook their food? Humans have made the perfect traps in which to die, should Gaia get sufficiently PO at mankind to do something like that.

If an event like this can be attributed to climate change, and I'm sure there are plenty that will be trying, it would be fitting that it happened in the US, the largest polluter in the world till recently, and in New York, the main driver of capitalism and ergo pollution.

[Scott]

Publicus, you are wrong. I lived in Canada; south of Winnipeg, not far from the US border. Canada has 4 season: June, July, August and Winter.

It's rather funny, because I remember that all the weather stopped at the US border, at least from the Canadian stations.

<snipped>

I did get confused there for a moment as it's Russia that has a two season year of winter and August. Canada and Russia are at roughly the same latitude, as are the US and China respecitively.

This year the Russians are trying to sell their snow to China, India, Brazil, Thailand and a few other such places...get some American bucks.....

God, Publicus, you just can't get anything right today, they already sold August to China!

Edit: An off-topic conspiracy post has been removed.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Scott

[NomadJoe]

I heard on the news that this might be one of the biggest snowfalls in NY history.

I hope people are well prepared.

I was checking the NYC webcams around 4am ET expecting to see the "blizzard" and thought it was strange there was just a light dusting on the ground from the previous storm. Nothing falling. And today, nothing again. Seems the epic storm has become an epic fail on the part of forecasters. At least for NY, the 2-3 feet didn't amount to even 1". Today forecasters are apologizing. http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/27/us/weather-forecast-dilemma/index.html

Boston got some, but no where near the 3 feet predicted:

[NomadJoe]

East Boston is recording almost 2 feet.