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Bomb cyclone – live updates: Millions face snow chaos with flights cancelled and power outages as blizzard blasts Northeast

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The Independent US

Key Points

  • Storm hits Wednesday, dumping snow on Tallahassee for the first time in 30 years
  • Schools closed across east coast with heavy snowfall expected throughout the day
  • Known as 'bomb cyclone' due to meteorological term for sudden drop in pressure
  • Comes amid cold snap where temperatures have barely broken 20F ( -6C)

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 dumped snow on Florida's capital Tallahassee for the first time in 30 years on Wednesday, and is expected to last throughout the day.

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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Live Updates

New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport has been temporarily closed due to heavy snow, ice and harsh winds in the area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The airport, which suspended operations shortly before 11am local time (1600 GMT), was expected to reopen at 3pm (2000 GMT), FAA officials said.
The US National Weather Service has been tweeting satellite images of the blizzard passing over the East Coast.
 
The city of Jackson in Mississippi has issued a citywide state of emergency declaration, with the low temperatures affecting water systems.

The city has issued a precautionary boil water advisory for the entire drinking water system, with people experiencing lower than normal water pressure.

Three people were killed as a result of weather-related accidents across the state of North Carolina, Keith Acree of the state's Department of Emergency Management has told CNN.

Mr Acree says the first incident occurred in Moore County last night. Two men traveling in a pick-up truck slid off the road into a creek and overturned.

A driver was also killed this morning after traveling off the road and into a ditch.

Those deaths bring the total number of cold weather-related deaths to 16 across the country.

Airports in the New York City area and Boston have been particularly hard hit by the storm, with more than two-thirds of flights in and out cancelled. 

In total, more than 3,200 flights are said to be cancelled across the region.

More than 45,000 people are said to be without power across the region:

 

Southeast Virginia and northern North Carolina: 45,747 customers without powers

 

Maryland and Delaware: 671 customers without power

 

New York City area: 1,175 customers without power

The governor of Massachusetts is warning of possible prolonged power outages resulting from the strong snowstorm that is pummeling the East Coast, to be followed by more severe cold. 

Govern Charlie Baker said during a morning briefing that emergency officials are prepared to open shelters in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, where heavy wet snow and howling wind gusts of 60 mph or higher pose the greatest threat of outages. 

There are said to have been 13 cold-related deaths across the country since the cold weather set in last week.

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.

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. 
 

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.

In Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, they have been facing heavy snowfall of up to three inches an hour.
 
The storm has intensified quickly as this post from the US National Weather Service shows:
 

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.

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."

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).

Welcome to The Independent's live blog tracing the impacts of the so-called "bomb cyclone" hitting the US east coast.

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."