US winter storm shuts offices, snarls flights
Print Edition
A fast-moving Arctic cold front forecast to dump up to 30cm of snow on the East Coast of the United States shut down state and federal governments, closed schools and snarled air travel in its path yesterday.
Winter storm warnings and advisories are in place from the central Appalachian Mountains north to southern New England, the National Weather Service said, including all of the Middle Atlantic states and the busy I-95 highway corridor that connects cities like Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Temperatures in the eastern half of the United States are expected to be from 10 to 25 degrees Celsius below average. Gusty winds will accompany up to 30cm of snow in southern New England as the cold front picks up moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, it said.
“It will be a winter wonderland for these areas,” the weather service said in a statement.
In Washington, hundreds of thousands of federal workers were ordered to stay home in the face of what was forecast to be the heaviest snowfall since 12.7cm came down in 2011.
City schools and offices also shut down, and the White House canceled its Tuesday press briefing.
But the Supreme Court remained open to hear cases, and organizers of the annual anti-abortion March for Life said today’s rally would be held regardless of bad weather.
In neighboring Maryland the state government was shut down and the Maryland Transit Administration cut back rail and bus services.
Further to the northeast, the inauguration party for New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie on Ellis Island in New York Harbor was canceled because of the looming storm.
Some schools in North Carolina closed early. Connecticut closed all its schools for today, and Hartford, the state capital, is sending students home early yesterday.
Nearly 2,300 flights in the United States had been canceled yesterday in the face of the storm, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. The worst-affected airports were Philadelphia International and New York’s LaGuardia.
Forecaster AccuWeather said the cold front would drop temperatures below freezing as far south as northern Florida.
Baltimore officials, expecting up to 25cm of snow in central and southern Maryland, issued a Code Blue alert for potentially dangerous conditions.
Philadelphia was expecting up to 30cm of snow, with wind chills in the Poconos mountains dipping down to -20 degrees, according to local CBS News station KYW-TV.
The National Weather Service said the cold air also would produce snow downwind from the Great Lakes.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
