A heavy snowstorm and dangerously cold conditions gripped the northeast United States yesterday, delaying flights, paralysing road travel and closing schools and government offices across the region.
Boston was hardest-hit by the US’s first major winter storm of 2014, getting nearly 35cm (14in) of snow, while some towns north of New England’s largest city saw close to 60cm (2ft) of accumulation.
Snow and cold stretched from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast, with Washington and New York’s morning commuters also hampered by several centimetres of fresh powder.
The National Weather Service said the mass of Arctic air would drop temperatures to 11-17 below normal yesterday, with record lows possible in some areas.
“Over the next 24 hours we are going to see temperatures like we haven’t seen in quite a while,” said Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. “Parts of the state are going to see temperatures 20 degrees below zero [-29 degrees] – not with wind-chill, real temperatures. It’s going to be problematic.”
Flights cancelled
Some 1,708 US flights were cancelled and 949 were delayed early yesterday, according to FlightAware.com.
New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport suspended operations.
At least one New Yorker took the storm in his stride. “It’s winter. It snowed. It happens,” said Mark Kulpa as he shovelled a sidewalk outside his Brooklyn workplace. – (Reuters)