US snow storm – as it happened: JFK and LaGuardia airports suspend flights amid 'bomb cyclone' chaos
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Heavy snow and high winds are beginning to pound the US East Coast along a front stretching from Maine in the north to North Carolina in the south, knocking out power, icing over roadways and closing hundreds of schools.
The storm moved governors of multiple states – including New York and New Jersey – to declare states of emergency, a step already taken by governors of southern states.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio also declared a “winter weather emergency,” imploring residents to “take this one very seriously”.
“Unless it is essential for you to be out on the roads, you should not be,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
The storm dumped snow on Florida’s capital Tallahassee for the first time in 30 years on Wednesday, and is expected to last throughout the day. New York’s John F Kennedy Airport and LaGuardia Airport closed down flights for a time during the afternoon.
It is being dubbed the “bomb cyclone”, and is the product of a rapid and rare drop in barometric pressure known as bombogenesis.
States of emergencies were in effect in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia and there were blizzard warnings from the Canadian border as far south as Virginia.
Much of the eastern United States is in the grip of a sustained cold spell that has frozen part of Niagara Falls, played havoc with public works and impeded firefighting in places where temperatures barely broke 20F ( -6C).
Areas around Boston were forecast to see about one foot (30 cm) of snow on Thursday, and the National Weather Service predicted a similar amount and wind gusts of up to 55 mph (90 kmph) in New York City.
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Schools were ordered to close in both cities.
“This could bring some very dangerous conditions,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said late on Wednesday.
“Both rush hours will be affected,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earlier told a news conference. “Be patient. With the amount of snow we’re getting here, we could be plowing your street and a half hour later it could look like we haven’t been there.”
Welcome to The Independent's live blog tracing the impacts of the so-called "bomb cyclone" hitting the US east coast.
Heavy snow and high winds are set to pound the US East Coast throughout Thursday along a front stretching from Maine in the north to North Carolina in the south, knocking out power, icing over roadways and closing hundreds of schools.
The storm dumped snow on Florida's capital Tallahassee for the first time in 30 years on Wednesday, and is expected to last throughout today.
It is being dubbed the "bomb cyclone", and is the product of a rapid and rare drop in barometric pressure known as bombogenesis.
States of emergencies were in effect in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia and there were blizzard warnings from the Canadian border as far south as Virginia.
Much of the eastern United States is in the grip of a sustained cold spell that has frozen part of Niagara Falls, played havoc with public works and impeded firefighting in places where temperatures barely broke 20F ( -6C).
Areas around Boston were forecast to see about one foot (30 cm) of snow on Thursday, and the National Weather Service predicted a similar amount and wind gusts of up to 55 mph (90 kmph) in New York City.
Schools were ordered to close in both cities.
"This could bring some very dangerous conditions," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said late on Wednesday.
"Both rush hours will be affected," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earlier told a news conference. "Be patient. With the amount of snow we're getting here, we could be plowing your street and a half hour later it could look like we haven't been there."
Private forecaster Accuweather said snow would fall quickly during the day, at a rate of several inches per hour, with the storm intensified by the bombogenesis effect.
Also known as a bomb cyclone, the phenomenon occurs when a storm's barometric pressure drops by 24 millibars in 24 hours.
The rare type of storm struck the U.S. Southeast on Wednesday, also dumping snow in parts of South Carolina and eastern Georgia, said meteorologist Patrick Burke of the federal Weather Prediction Center.
More than 35,000 customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia early on Thursday, utilities reported online.
A part of US-13 at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia was closed due to high winds early on Thursday while state transportation departments throughout the region reported dozens of delays due to deteriorating roads conditions.
Late on Wednesday night, a baggage car and two sleeper cars on an Amtrak train traveling from Miami to New York, with 311 passengers aboard, derailed in as it was slowly backing into a station in Savannah, Georgia. No one was injured, an Amtrak spokesman said.
The cold has been blamed for at least nine deaths over the past few days, including two homeless people in Houston.
The storm has intensified quickly as this post from the US National Weather Service shows:
In Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, they have been facing heavy snowfall of up to three inches an hour.
US airlines have cancelled more than 3,000 flights in and out of the US today, according to the airline tracking website FlightAware.
Newark Liberty International, Boston Logan, and New York's LaGuardia and John F Kennedy account for nearly half of those flights.
Eastern Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island were bracing for as much as 18 inches of snow, with snow falling at a rate of 3 inches per hour possible.
Connecticut Governor Dannel P Malloy said more than 100 warming centres have been opened in 34 towns across the state. Connecticut has 634 state plow trucks and 250 contractors working to clear the state's highways.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has warned that the across the city will get worse throughout the day.
"The situation will deteriorate through the day," Mr Cuomo said. "Afternoon and evening rush hour we expect to be worse, especially on Long Island."
Long Island, in particular, is a major concern because of the expressway and coastal areas. Mr Cuomo warned that the "wind off the water creates mayhem."
"Unless it is essential for you to be out ... you should not be," he said.
There are said to have been 13 cold-related deaths across the country since the cold weather set in last week.
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