SAVANNAH, GA.—A brutal winter storm dumped snow in Tallahassee, Florida, on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three decades before slogging up the Atlantic Coast and smacking Southern cities such as Savannah and Charleston, South Carolina, with a rare blast of snow and ice.

Airlines have scrapped more than 1,600 Thursday flights so far, on top of 484 Wednesday flights that were cancelled, according to FlightAware, an online tracking service. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines began suspending flights at some eastern U.S. airports as the carriers braced for snow, ice and freezing temperatures from Florida for Nova Scotia.

Forecasters warned that the same system could soon strengthen into a “bomb cyclone” as it rolls up the East Coast, bringing hurricane-force winds, coastal flooding and up to a foot of snow.

At least 16 deaths were blamed on dangerously cold temperatures that for days have gripped wide swaths of the U.S. from Texas to New England.

A winter storm warning extended from the Gulf Coast of Florida’s “Big Bend” region all the way up the Atlantic Coast. Forecasters said hurricane-force winds blowing offshore on Thursday could generate seven-metre seas.

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Schools in the Southeast called off classes just months after being shut down because of hurricane threats, and police urged drivers to stay off the roads in a region little accustomed to the kind of winter woes common to the Northeast.

The U.S. National Weather Service said the winter storm will probably intensify into a “bomb cyclone” — the term refers to a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure — that could dump more than 20 cm of snow on the Boston area on Thursday and at least 15 cm of snow in the New York City region.

Meteorologists say most of the storm’s hurricane-force winds should stay out to sea until it nears Cape Cod, Maine and Eastern Canada. Weather Prediction Center lead forecaster Bob Oravec said coastal New England could see wind gusts up to 113 km/h.

Blizzard warnings were issued from Rhode Island to Maine. Oravec said he expects they could be extended as far south as parts of New York.

“It’s sort of akin to a hurricane travelling up the coast,” said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at the private firm Weather.US.

People “shouldn’t be as worried about the storm as they should be about the extremely cold air behind it. The actual impacts aren’t going to be a bomb at all. There’s nothing exploding or detonating.”

In a bomb cyclone, the temperature difference between the two air masses leads to a steep and rapid — meteorologists often use the term “explosive” — drop in atmospheric pressure. The air starts to move and, aided by the Earth’s rotation, begins to rotate. The swirling air can bring high winds and a lot of precipitation, often in the form of snow.

That could happen this time — depending on the track of the storm, parts of the Northeast were expecting heavy snow. But one effect of the storm is even more clear: After it eventually moves off to the north and west, it should draw even more cold polar air into the eastern half of the United States, continuing the big chill.

In Savannah, snow blanketed the city’s lush downtown squares and collected on branches of burly oaks for the first time in nearly eight years. William Shaw, a Savannah native, used baby steps to shuffle along a frozen road from his home to the post office.

“It almost seems the town is deserted just like in the last hurricane,” said Shaw, 65. “There’s no one on the street. It’s got a little eerie feeling.”

Dump trucks spread sand on major streets in Savannah ahead of the storm and police closed several bridges, overpasses and a major causeway because of ice.

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By the time the morning’s dreary sleet and rain turned to fluffy snow, Savannah came out to play. The National Weather Service cited unofficial reports of up to 5 centimetres of snow. It was the city’s first measurable snowfall since February 2010, and families with children flocked to Forsyth Park near the downtown historic district for snowball fights.

Across the Georgia-South Carolina line in Charleston, unofficial reports showed up to 7.6 cm of snowfall there, according to the weather service. There was enough snow outside Chris Monoc’s house for his sons, ages 4 and 2, to go sledding a mile from Charleston’s iconic Ravenel Bridge.

“They probably will be teenagers the next time something like this happens, and that’s kind of sad,” Monoc said. “But we’ll enjoy it while it is here.”

The icy weather forced airports to shut down in Savannah, Charleston and elsewhere. Interstate 95 was nearly an icy parking lot for 100 km stretching north from the Georgia-South Carolina state line. State troopers couldn’t keep up with the number of reported wrecks as they climbed into the hundreds.

In Tallahassee, Florida, Michigan transplant Laura Donaven built a snowman 15 cm tall. The city tweeted that snow fell there for the first time in 28 years.

“I made a snowball and threw it at my dad,” said Donaven, a 41-year-old hair salon owner.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency through Friday for 28 counties. School systems on the Alabama coast waived uniform requirements so students could bundle up.

Florida’s largest theme parks announced that water attractions such as Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, Universal Orlando’s Volcano Bay and SeaWorld’s Aquatica were closed. Temperatures were running well below normal for this time of year, and the lows are expected to hover right around freezing.

In Prairieville, Louisiana, Valerie Anne Broussard struggled overnight to keep warm in a house that is being rebuilt after the 2016 floods that hit the small community southeast of Baton Rouge. Her home has exterior walls and floors but no insulation, no central heating and only a few working electrical outlets. Eggs that she left on the kitchen counter have frozen and broke open.

“It’s like a camping trip that I didn’t sign up for,” said Broussard, who’s been huddling with her 8-year-old daughter, newborn baby and boyfriend in a bedroom warmed by space heaters.

Making the most of the South’s bitter cold snap, the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro offered discounted tickets for those willing to brave the cold to see polar bears frolic in their kind of weather, along with Arctic foxes and elk. African elephants, lions and gorillas were sheltered out of public view.

As the cold pushed farther northward, Jerry Gorans found himself stunned by the frigid temperatures as he walked along the waterfront City Dock of Annapolis, Maryland, where birds stood still on icy water.

“This is the coldest I’ve been in probably 50 years,” said Gorens, who lives in Fresno, California, and was visiting his wife’s family in Maryland. “I mean, this is freezing cold. My feet hurt, my ears hurt.”

With files from the New York Times and Bloomberg

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