New York Faces ‘Beast’ of a Monday as Snow Forecasts Rise

(Bloomberg) -- New York City is facing as much as two feet of snow from a storm that’s already blanketed Chicago and begun spreading to Washington, snarling road and air travel.

Manhattan’s Central Park, northern New Jersey, and parts of the lower Hudson Valley could get as much as 18 to 22 inches (46 to 56 cm) by the time the storm ends late Monday or early Tuesday, said Brian Ciemnecki, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, New York.

The city could wake up Monday with 4 to 6 inches on the ground, but the worst of the storm will be after 8 a.m., when snow could fall at a rate of 2 or 3 inches per hour.

“Monday is going to a beast,” said Jay Engle, a weather service meteorologist, also in Upton. “We’re looking for snow that will be pretty heavy at times throughout the day.”

Winter storm warnings and watches, as well as weather advisories, stretch from Ohio to Maine, according to the NWS. Chicago got 9 inches in some areas as the storm passed through on Saturday. A broad area from Washington to northern New England will get from 6 to 12 inches of snow, with some areas getting more as the storm makes its way up the East Coast, said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Large winter systems commonly snarl road, rail and air traffic, as well as spark power outages.

As of 4 p.m., 2,021 flights had been canceled for Sunday and Monday, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. Light snow was falling in Washington and New York.

The bulk of Monday’s cancellations were at both of New York’s airports, as well as Newark and Boston. Amtrak has canceled Acela service between Boston and Washington, which passes through New York, and will operate other services on a limited schedule, the government-run railroad said on its website.

Metro North is canceling its Monday late night trains on its Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, the commuter railroad said on its website.

In addition to the snow, coastal flood warnings and advisories were issued for Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as parts of Long Island, the weather service said. New York schools will be completely remote and restaurants will be closed Monday, according to a tweet by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Residents who can work from home should, and residents are urged to use public transportation over driving.

In Maryland, crews were deploying resources including up to 387,000 tons of rock salt and 2,700 pieces of equipment statewide to keep roads clear, Governor Larry Hogan tweeted. “Please exercise extreme caution if you must travel,” he said.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a snow emergency for the nation’s capital from Sunday morning.

President Joe Biden was monitoring the approaching storm and ensuring federal agencies are coordinating with states on the response, the White House said on Saturday.

There is still some uncertainty with the exact track of the system, which could change snow totals, Engle said. For instance, if it approaches closer to New York City then less snow could fall around the immediate region.

Across central Long Island, as well as the lower Hudson River Valley, and southwestern Connecticut, as much as 16 inches could fall through Tuesday. Washington could get 4 to 6 inches with a coating of ice.

Further to the east, Boston could get from 7 to 15 inches, the weather service said.

Some individual runs of computer weather models have been calling for a second round of snow in the Mid-Atlantic states that could bring on extreme totals, which has gained some traction on Twitter. Oravec dismissed them.

“There has been some wild projections on some of the models,” Oravec said. “The outlier models are fun to look at but they tend not to verify.”

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