Historical Blizzard to Hit 15 States

The ABC7 News Storm Impact Scale explained Today’s declaration authorizes state agencies to assist local governments in response to the storm, which is expected to dump up to 2 feet of snow in parts of the state and bring strong winds. “It’s an extremely large storm”, she told reporters Thursday.

Brett Thackara said there has been very little change in the track and intensity of the storm as it moves across the country.

Washington, D.C., received its first taste of the storm Wednesday, getting under two inches of snow but prompting more than 100 accidents and traffic jams. Most of the crashes involved damage to vehicles only, according to the Virginia State Police.

The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center warns of heavy, “perhaps crippling” snow across the northern mid-Atlantic region, including Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, probably beginning Friday.

As of late Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service put the Pocono Mountains and northwestern New Jersey in the range of 3 to 4 inches, with the Lehigh Valley and Warren County most likely to see 6 to 8 inches and a bit more across southern Lehigh and Northampton counties into Hunterdon County.

Snow accumulations are expected to be between six to 16 inches this weekend with the highest amounts likely near the Maryland border tapering off to the north, according to NWS.

Uccellini said it won’t be quite as bad as Superstorm Sandy, but people should expect high winds, a storm surge and inland flooding from DE to NY.

The sorry preview raised concerns among people scrambling to prepare for up to 2 feet of heavy wet snow and blizzard conditions across the Mid-Atlantic region.

“We will treat this as a Homeland Security event”, Bowser said.

Governors in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and joined Bowser in declaring states of emergency while the governor of West Virginia declared a state of preparedness-all to allow for road crews and other workers to get ready for the storm.

New York City is also under a blizzard watch for Saturday and Sunday, where up to a foot of snow was forecast.

Quentin Norman, a manager at a gas station and convenience store in Capitol Heights, Maryland, just outside Washington, said his commute home Wednesday took an hour instead of the usual 15 minutes. “Everybody was talking about the weekend”. She said it looked like nobody had tried to clear sidewalks in front of federal buildings. “It was really icy”. It will be held on Friday, the anniversary of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalising abortion.