This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A severe winter storm has enveloped much of the US east coast, delivering frigid temperatures, snow, strong winds and coastal flooding that has led to the cancellation of thousands of flights and the looming prospect of power outages.

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At least a dozen people have died as a result of the storm, which has brought bitterly cold winds of up to 70mph (113km/h) as it travels north up the Atlantic seaboard.

Forecasters have referred to the storm as a “bomb cyclone” due to an unusually rapid drop in atmospheric pressure that has triggered hurricane-like conditions. Ryan Maue, a US meteorologist, called the event “one of the fastest-intensifying non-tropical storms in historical analysis”.

The storm was threatening to dump as much as 18in (45cm) of snow from the Carolinas to Maine. Forecasters expected it to be followed immediately by a blast of face-stinging cold air that could break records in more than two dozen cities and bring wind chills as low as -40F (-40C) this weekend.

Eastern Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island braced for as much as 3in of snow per hour.

New York City is forecast to get as much as 10in of snow, prompting schools across the city to be shut and hundreds of salt spreaders and plows to be deployed to icy streets.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A squirrel sits on a fence in Battery Park in New York. Photograph: Alba Vigaray/EPA

By Friday, the temperature is expected to plummet to -4F (-20C) with wind chill. Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor, warned the storm “will bring some very dangerous conditions” and urged New Yorkers to stay indoors. Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, declared a state of emergency for the city and neighboring counties.

About 3,000 flights have been cancelled, with New York’s airports the worst affected.

More than 100,000 homes and businesses lost power at some point, depriving many people of heat. More than half of the outages mostly in the south were restored by Thursday afternoon.



The high winds caused coastal flooding from Massachusetts to Maine, overwhelming fishing piers, streets and restaurants. Schools, businesses and ferry services in parts of the Canadian coast were also shut down.

New England is expected to bear the brunt of the storm, with the winds whipping up waves and chunks of ice that will crash into coastal communities with as much as 3ft (1 meter) in forecast storm surge.

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Boston, which is set to get more than a foot of snow, has shut down its school system and residents have been advised to avoid the roads due to “white-out” conditions that will eliminate visibility. Supermarkets have been emptied of their wares as Bostonians prepared for the punishing conditions.

“You don’t hear the weather people use the term blizzard or whiteout very often,” said the Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker. “It’s going to look pretty rough out there.”

Some people took the weather in stride.



Mark Schoenenberger, a 45-year-old Nasa engineer who lives in Norfolk, Virginia, put on his cross-country skis so he could make a half-hour trip to the bagel shop for some breakfast for his family.

“It’s like ‘Yay, I get to go out,” he said.

Play Video 1:05 Florida gets first snowfall in almost 30 years – video report

The storm is expected to taper off by Saturday morning, although a barrage of low temperatures will continue to grip much of the eastern US. National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Peterson said record low temperatures were predicted for 28 major cities across New England, eastern New York and the mid-Atlantic states by dawn on Sunday.

Boston expected a low around -11F (-23C) overnight Saturday into Sunday. Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vermont, could see -16 and -19F, respectively, the weather service said.

The storm has brought rare dustings of snow to southern states, with Tallahassee in Florida receiving its first recorded snowfall in 28 years and some schools in Georgia forced to close.

It was so cold in south Florida that iguanas fell from their perches in trees in suburban Miami. The reptiles became immobile when temperatures dipped below 40F (5C).