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Subscribe to RSSSnow and hurricane-force winds are slated to hit the Northeast this weekend. Residents in the tri-state area are scrambling to get ready after last year's unusually dry and mild winter. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
Updated at 3:07 a.m. ET: A crippling and potentially historic winter storm barreled toward the Northeast on Thursday, threatening tens of millions of people with 2 feet of snow. Boston canceled school and braced for one of its worst blizzards of all time.
Airlines encouraged fliers to change their plans and get out of the way. There were already delays of more than two hours at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, where tangles can snarl air traffic across the country. More than 2500 flights had been cancelled by early Friday, according to flightstats.com.
The culprits were a so-called clipper system moving through the Upper Midwest and a low-pressure system headed for the waters off New England. When they converge, probably late Friday, they are expected to sock the region with its heaviest snow in at least two years, and perhaps much longer.
“When this hits, it’s going to come down very hard,” said Tom Niziol, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “This is something we haven’t seen in a while, particularly in New England.”
The National Weather Service put the New York City area and Long Island under a blizzard warning and said those areas could get more than a foot of snow. Earlier in the day, the weather service warned that travel in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island could become nearly impossible.
Full coverage from The Weather Channel
Forecasts called for as much as 9 inches of snow across central Michigan, a foot and a half in the Hudson Valley region of New York, and 2 feet or more across coastal New England. Possible hurricane-force winds off Massachusetts and Rhode Island also made flooding a threat.
In Boston, the storm had the potential to take out century-old records. The city’s biggest snowstorms since 1892 were a 27.5-inch blast in February 2003 and a 27.1-inch dumping exactly 35 years ago, in 1978. Mayor Thomas Menino closed city schools for Friday and pleaded for common sense.
The snow is expected to pick up early Friday afternoon and by Saturday at 8 a.m. blizzard conditions will be in full force along several major cities in the Northeast, from New York City to Portland. The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore reports.
“Stay off the streets of our city,” he said. “Basically, stay home.”
Light to moderate snow is expected to spread through the Great Lakes on Thursday and could reach as far east as parts of New England and New York City by Thursday night, according to forecasters for The Weather Channel.
Snow should begin Friday in Boston and Hartford, Conn., and grow heavy at times during the day in New York, New England and parts of Pennsylvania, the forecasters said.
The most intense part of the storm was expected to hit Friday night and Saturday, with as much as 3 inches of snow falling per hour in coastal New England, including Boston, Hartford and Portland, Maine.
By Saturday evening, snow should taper off in Boston and the storm is forecast to pull off the coast of Maine by Sunday morning, The Weather Channel said.
RELATED: Detailed storm timeline from The Weather Channel
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city was readying plows and said crews would work extended shifts.
“It’s been a quiet winter, but we knew that February could be a tough one,” said the city’s sanitation commissioner, John Doherty.
For at least some people there, the storm was a chance to profit.
“Shoveling, cleaning cars, anything you need me to do,” Isaac Morales told NBC affiliate WHDH in Boston. “I already have rock salt. I already have shovels. I’ve got extra bodies. I’ve got everything so I’m all set.”
But for survivors of Hurricane Sandy, including thousands of people still displaced and many more with disrupted lives, it was more serious. A much smaller snowstorm followed Sandy in late October.
“People were just miserable, unhappy, and it started to get cold,” Annie Petraro of Long Island told NBC New York. “Things just weren’t good. And now it’s freezing, it’s gonna snow.”
The Long Island Power Authority, which was strongly criticized for a slow response to the hurricane, said that it was planning for this one and making sure it had enough people working and enough supplies.
More than 130 flights into and out of O’Hare were canceled Thursday, and more than 70 were already canceled for Friday, according to FlightAware.com. More than 400 flights into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport were canceled for Friday, as were 100 for Boston Logan.
American, Delta, United and other major airlines said they would waive their fees to change flights, which can run to $150, for people going through major airports in the Northeast, including Logan in Boston and LaGuardia and Kennedy in New York.
Amtrak canceled some runs of its Downeaster train line, which runs from Brunswick, Maine, south to Boston.
RELATED: Travelers brace for ‘monster storm’
Ski resorts were excited by the prospect of a major snowstorm.
“It is perfect timing because it will just remind everybody that it is winter, it’s real, and get out and enjoy it,” Tom Meyers, marketing director for Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Massachusetts, told The Associated Press.
Boston Mayor Menino declares a snow emergency, urging people to stay home and canceling school.
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Leave it to a Rethuglican to bring politics into the conversation. Yelling, screaming and crying about everything is the only way they can be heard. By the way thug it will only be snow falling not the sky that you would have everyone believe. What a miserable exsistence you people must lead.
Nobody mentioned politics until you crawled out of the woodwork, doofus.
Actually Caligua brought it up in #1.30 and I was more than happy to oblige them so they would feel better.
Good grief..it's called Winter..come to North Dakota where we have snow from Oct to April.
No thanks Deb. You are braver than I am. Just an inch kills us here in SC.
Cold and snow in winter... Shocking!!!
Isn't it winter??
This is national news WHY?????
Sorry, if the east coast wimps can't take a little snow.
It's a big deal because a lot of us still have no homes/heat from Sandy! Local budgets are exhausted by that storm's impact.
At the risk of showing my age, when I was a kid we had near-zero temps every winter and lots of blizzards. Blizzards have become rare these days, as tornadoes and hurricanes have become more common in the NE.
Anyway, people do need advance notice so they can make sure they have staples, make arrangements to take care of vulnerable friends and relatives and alter plans so they don't get trapped on the road somewhere.
I thought Obama would all that taken care of by now. Guess the media doesn't care about Northeasters.
The Republicans refused to authorize the relief bill. I guess they felt only red states (taker states) should get help, even the northeastern (maker states) pays far more into taxes than they get back from the government.
The president does not get to authorize spending for anything, although it should be noted that the deficit has been steadily decreasing under his watch.
It was simply held up to get rid of some liberal pork. The deficit has not dropped a penny.
I live in Salem, MA & I hope we have a Blizzard!!
Things change, I know. But, with my plotting of maps in US Weather central in Wash. D.C. and a senior Air force, civilian, or Navy forecaster we did very good in 1950-52. The weather central was the final forecast source. The data came in on radioteletype and thermofax machines. With all the "models" we have today we forgot the most necessary "model" found in an experienced forecaster's head. The map plotting was done by Navy, AirForce and civilians. The forecasts were done by higher educated officers and civilians. The office was working 24/7. The maps were copied and distributed by the ammonia copy machines and thermal faxsimiles radio distributed. No TV then or digital devices.
And they looked out the windows and even went outdoors now and then to to see what was really going on.
My memory isn't that great, but as I recall the 1940's and (maybe) your 1950's, before we had such things as satellite monitoring, remote sensing, and what we now call electronic computers, you had better luck preparing for the opposite of whatever the weatherman said on the radio.
Do hope y'all are lucky.
Um I got a Question, why do we have to worry about the snow as a big thing on msn or the news, when we have the weather channel? "most of these stories are just not big news stories at all" just boring stuff.
Because (and I'm fighting the urge to soomething snotty and impertinent at this point), SOME people don't buy the weather channel because they remember a time when governments were responsive enough to the majority of moters that an institution called the Federal Communication Commission limited the time allowed for commercials, would never have allowed cable channels to charge you money to watch them, nor would consumer watchdog organizations allow "bait and switch" offers to get you hooked on a low price to start with that is later jacked up to as much as they think you can afford.
Watch the Weather Channel and rot on your couch with the all the rest, you brain-dead potato.
The EURO forecast is better than GFS cause I want some big snow!
Noooooooooo!!!! I'm flying into JFK Saturday!!!!! After I get there though, it can snow all it wants.
Be safe I hope you have no delays.
My model shows a massive earthquake off Calif. with a 96 ft. tidal wave followed by all of the Country East of the Sierra Nevada mountain range falling into the ocean. So do not worry about the snow. It will melt.
Have you folks ever SEEN Boston in 18 inches of snow? The city shuts down for at least a week. The streets are narrow and there's almost no place to park cars off the streets, and then even if you can plow the streets there's no place to put the snow. If there's any chance at all of a storm of that magnitude coming to Boston, people need to know so they can be ready to take evasive action. Best option -- come to NH and ski for a week.
In NH we know how to deal with blizzards. You Socalis can keep your earthquakes and mudslides.
i do so enjoy the hype and build up to a storm
I'm weird i guess
Someone contact Al Gore and ask him what he thinks will happen. After all he did invent Global Warming, and I am sure this is an affect of the warming, or is it possible that Al meant we are entering an Ice Age.
Illiterate idiot. It's "effect", not "affect". Affect describes your state of mind, which is belligerant, partisan and devoid of facts.
It's belligerent Witchypoo
You're right. I acknowledge facts when they are presented to me. Thank you.
well i live far up state ny, seems like both models are saying 10+inches I like snow, but I couldn't imagine up to 4 feet of it. in one storm.
To Be(three feet) or not to be(perhaps 3 inches).....that, is the question;-)
Ask the GEOENGINEERS what they plan to DUMP there...rather than speculating!
it has been so nice of the people that own our republican representatives to get the American public so confused and mislead, the high paid weather forecasters, can't predict the days weather.(unless the grover norquist society allows them to.)
here it is thursday morning, and the hours ahead are so off the chart, the potential for 70 degree's on one side, and snow up to your belt, on the other, wow, and the usa has to rely on the satellites from France and the other countries in Europe to predict the weather in the USA?
The plan for republican sabotage of the Barak Obama presidency, has been a stupid game of obstruction, to disallow everything that would benefit the people of the USA, our weather service has satellites failing and falling out of the sky. but them republicans have sure voted all kinds of new laws to benefit the republican party.
What is the french word for you have been had?
oooo my....Take your politics and shove it up your ass idiot
Harry Reid has not allowed any Republican bill to pass, and satellites are not falling out of the sky. As always, liberals getting all emo and over dramatic.
wow, the hecklers have no idea that the weather forecasts arent even produced in the USA, oh my, we are not going to be prepared for hurricane season at all.
Ah...memories of the Blizzard of "78"
why not use gas pocket that we can drill to heat up air that will carry it into the storm the hot air will heat the molecule causing the cold to be minimized also if we could built towers in the in a trident shape and heat then causing the strom to disrupt -you could also run eclectromagnetics through it cutting the storm in to sections the smaller areas will be diverted and will disassemble
you have to watch for the dams all the freezing and thawing means expansion of the body of water with more density on the base of the walls so cracking could occur
this though might be the best time to start trickling water-more than i trickle because a it flows into the valley it will freeze and then when it thaws it will actually drain water into drought areas which changes the soil and the vegetation itself will cause a cooler ground and shade so it will affect the climate
why not build reservoirs in the area and make them fish farms -agriculture and industry construction will change the economy
more money in the economy means more spending on goods=
that is why they should pay workers better because they are the companies consumers who buy the products so if they have no money they don't spend=
companies cut back unemployment and the companies go broke and save =
when if they gave the money to the base they would have near enough perpetual wealth and everyone eats
you could get the a/c guys to create a fan and burn the gas off new jersey and blow it to the atorm to disrupt it
just some thoughts
Great... Just what I needed -.-
I gonna' put on my snowshoes an hunt some coyotes. Retirement is a BLAST!!
a gopher is a groundhog
A groundhog is a woodchuck.