All eyes on forecasts as blizzard heads for New England

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY | USATODAY

With a winter storm forecast to explode into a "potentially historic" blizzard over New England and New York this weekend, tens of millions of people are bracing for travel nightmares and power outages.

The storm was getting cranked up Thursday around the Great Lakes, where 6 to 12 inches could fall in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and New York state.

New England and New York are forecast to take the hardest hit, but others around the country could feel the ripple effect from canceled flights out of New York and other airports along the Eastern Seaboard.

The New York City metro area, home to three airports and 20 million residents in four states, is expected to see heavy snow, with as much as 12 inches possible in the metro area, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

The National Weather Service said in an online report that "a potentially historic winter storm and blizzard is expected to drop 1 to 2 feet of snow across much of the region," and that "travel may become near impossible at times with considerable blowing and drifting snow."

The storm isn't expected to have a major economic impact on New England, said economist David Iaia of Lexington, Mass.-based IHS Global Insight.

"If everything just shuts down for a day, the vast majority of business merely gets shifted to before the storm or after the storm," Iaia said.

Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for the entire New York City metro area, Long Island, all of Connecticut and Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and coastal sections of New Hampshire and Maine. Some parts of New England should see more than 2 feet of snow, and some coastal areas could see hurricane-force winds of up to 74 mph, the weather service says.

Anticipating the storm's impact, every big U.S. airline has issued flexible re-booking policies. The move allowed most fliers ticketed to fly to airports in the storm's path to make one change to their flights without the standard change fees.

By late Thursday, airlines had already proactively canceled nearly 1,200 flights ahead of the storm, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. About three-fourths 3/4 of that number came just from the three New York airports.

With such a large number of cancellations, the flight disruptions in New York and the Northeast are all but certain to ripple through airports across the nation. A flight from Houston to Los Angeles, for example, could become delayed or canceled if the aircraft or crew scheduled to fly it gets knocked off schedule because of problems in Boston or New York.

This has the potential to be a top 10 snowstorm of all time in Boston, according to the Weather Channel. A snow total of 18.2 inches or more would place it in that list.

In addition to the snow, winds and coastal flooding are also concerns: In Massachusetts, there is a chance of "ferocious sustained winds near 50 mph at the coast, with wind gusts in excess of hurricane force -- 74 mph," Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters says.

He adds that the winds will push ocean water onshore, potentially causing flooding in Boston. One forecast, Masters says, shows the city could see the third-highest water level on record.

The Weather Channel, as part of its new winter storm naming system, has dubbed this storm Nemo. Neither the National Weather Service nor any other private weather agencies are using the name.

Two storms — one moving in from the Great Lakes that's producing the snow there Thursday and another one moving up the East Coast — are forecast to merge near New England on Friday, Walker says.

These storms, combined with a high pressure system over Canada that's supplying cold air, provide "a classic setup for a major winter storm across southern New England," the weather service says.

The storm should put an end to Boston's snow drought this winter: The city has received only 10 inches of snow this winter season, according to the weather service. Typically, more than 25 inches would have fallen so far this winter.

It's actually been more than two years since Boston has seen a snowstorm of greater than 6 inches, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Jon Erdman.

In Massachusetts, about 3,000 snow-removal and salt trucks will be on the streets throughout the state during the storm, says Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Not everyone is panicked about the incoming storm. Ski resorts all over New England are excited about what could be the biggest snowfall of the season: "If I had a tail it would be wagging," says Stowe Mountain Resort spokesman Mike Colbourn. "Presidents' week is next week, a big nor'easter – all of the stars are in alignment."

"As far as where the big ski areas are, we are at ground zero for this storm - we are in the 24-inch band," says Bruce McCloy, director of Marketing for Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, N.H., "We are so excited! It's going to be awesome! How are we getting ready? We are dancing a jig, and then after that, we are getting ready. We haven't had any big storms in the past two years so this is really big."

Contributing: Ben Mutzabaugh, Natalie DiBlasio, Melanie Eversley