The East Coast of the U.S. from Philadelphia to New York City to Maine braced today for a potentially historic blizzard that forecasters say could dump up to 90 cm of snow on the region and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a blizzard warning for the northern section of the East Coast from this afternoon, putting states from New Jersey to Indiana under winter storm watches and advisories until Tuesday. Airlines cancelled nearly 1,800 flights.
"This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
De Blasio told residents of America's financial capital and most populous city to stay off the roads and to "prepare for something worse than we have seen before."
The biggest snowfall on record in New York City came during the storm of Feb. 11-12, 2006, dropping 68 cm, according to the city's Office of Emergency Management.
The NWS called the approaching system a "crippling and potentially historic blizzard," with many areas along the East Coast expected to be blanketed by 30-60 cm of snow. The New York City area could be the hardest hit, with lashing winds and snowfall of 76 cm or more in some suburbs.
Delta Air Lines said it was cancelling 600 flights because of the blizzard warning for the East Coast, while United Airlines will cancel all flights at airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia tomorrow.
The carrier will limit operations beginning tonight at Newark, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in the New York area, a spokeswoman said.
Southwest Airlines said Sunday evening it would cancel more than 130 of 3,410 flights scheduled for today due to the storm, an increase from its earlier plan to cancel about 20 flights.
American Airlines said cancellation plans would not be finalized until this morning but that it expected "quite a few" flights to be affected. Flight-tracking website Flightaware.com showed 1,792 flights cancelled for today.
Cities along the heavily populated East Coast had snow ploughs and trucks on standby to dispense road salt.