New York: A mix of snow and ice bore down on the US Northeast on Saturday, disrupting post-holiday weekend airline traffic and prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to issue weather emergency declarations
even as the storm ebbed by mid-morning.
People in much of the Northeast were advised to stay off the roads because of treacherous conditions, with states of emergency declared in New York and New Jersey.
“The safety of New Yorkers is my top priority, and I continue to urge extreme caution throughout the duration of this storm,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at New York’s major airports as a significant winter storm descended on the city and neighbouring regions.Credit: Bloomberg
By early Saturday, about 15 to 25 centimetres of snow had fallen across an area from Syracuse in central New York to Long Island in the southeast of the state, as well as Connecticut, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with
the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre near Washington, DC.
New York City received 5 to 10cm of snow overnight, with 11cm reported at Central Park, Oravec said, the most since 2022.
“The good news is that the heaviest snow is done,” he said. “Only a few flurries remain this morning and those will taper off by the afternoon.”
But the effects were being felt by travellers. More than14,400 domestic US flights on Saturday were cancelled or
delayed as of mid-morning, with the majority in the New York area, including at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
Another 2100 international flights that had been scheduled to depart or land in the US on Saturday were cancelled, FlightAware reported.
