Brutal cold forces closure of U.S. schools, offices, flight cancellations

Suffolk County, as per the nrom for winter storms, is expected to get the worst of it, although Nassau, Queens, and Brooklyn will not be getting off lightly, either.

Already, many state governors have announced closure of schools and offices over the threatening hurricane-force winter with wind gusts and blinding snow. The National Weather Service warned of wind gusts hitting near 70 miles per hour.

Blizzard warnings are in effect along the east coast from North Carolina to Maine.

READ: A $1 billion marijuana windfall for New Jersey? Philadelphia declared a snow emergency.

From Maine to Florida, every East Coast state has at least one weather advisory, winter storm watch, winter storm warning or blizzard warning.

As forecast, temperatures plunged on Friday – despite sunny conditions, they were not expected to rise above 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 Celsius) in NY and Boston.

Gaines said the forecast expects temperatures in the 30s on Monday, bringing an end to an extraordinary cold snap.

Meanwhile, some areas between Georgia and Virginia were blanketed with up to a half a foot a snow by Thursday morning.

“We can not and will not order people up in trucks to fix lines when the winds are too high”, Malloy said.

By Wednesday afternoon, Duke Energy reported 362 power outages in its coverage area, which includes portions of eastern North Carolina. And over 90% of Thursday flights from LaGuardia Airport in New York City are canceled and American Airlines suspended all departures from Boston.

Air France cancelled all flights Thursday and Friday from Paris to NY and Boston.

An intense storm packing strong winds and heavy snow is hitting the northeastern USA, dumping piles of snow on the region.

Weather forecasters had warned that the storm system could shift off its current track.

Runways at Charleston International Airport closed and the South Carolina Highway Patrol reported dozens of wrecks as snow and sleet fell.

“That is a key driver, the cold air mass and the warm Gulf Stream”, Gallina said. When it happens the results can be ferocious.

The storm that swept in on Thursday with gusts of more than 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour), dumped 22 inches (56 cms) of snow in parts of ME and 17 inches (43 cm) in parts of MA, before ending on Friday, the National Weather Service said.

“It is certainly going to be a bomb”, Carolan said.

The bombogenesis phenomenon occurs when a storm’s barometric pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours. That’s down from a peak of about 20,000 outages after the storm blew in Wednesday.

“In a lot of New England, the highs will be in the single digits and the teens today, with intense wind chills”, said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist with private forecasting service Accuweather.

A man walks on the snow covered boardwalk during a snow storm on January 4, 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The storm will then be followed by a wave of bracing cold.