Winter Storm Stella puts 18 million under blizzard warning

A blizzard warning prompted Mayor de Blasio to shutter above-ground transportation at 4 a.m. Tuesday and warn drivers to stay off the road if possible due to potential whiteout conditions. Much more, in fact.

Snow has been piling up in parts of the northeastern United States as a huge winter storm named “Stella” brought blizzards and disruption in several states.

A blizzard warning – cautioning that high winds will combine with snow for poor visibility – was in effect Tuesday morning for parts of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and the six New England states. Between 3 and 6 inches of snow were expected in the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be cold, with a high near 30 degrees both days, but there is no precipitation in the forecast. “Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented”, the NWS said in a statement early Tuesday. “The reality is we are just hemming and hawing over snow amounts”.

Conditions will gradually improve Tuesday night into Wednesday, though winds gusts of up to 30 miles per hour are still expected.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that the New York State Emergency Operations Center will be activated Monday evening, with stockpiles of sandbags, generators, and pumps at the ready, as well as snow-removal vehicles and salt spreaders.

In Boston, the forecast now calls for northward winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts up to 55 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that some 50 million people from Pennsylvania to ME might be affected. Then the snow will start coming down heavily.

Any power outages can be tracked through Pepco’s website.

Winter Storm Stella arrived in NY shortly after midnight on Tuesday, bringing with it a daylong blizzard warning, school closures, a suspension of above-ground subway service and the promise of up to two feet of snow.

The forecast for Tuesday’s snow system has been anything but stable.

8 p.m.: Snow trickles down to flurries.

Light snow is expected to begin late Monday and intensify overnight into Tuesday with the heaviest snowfall expected through Tuesday afternoon with rates as much as two to four inches (five to 10 centimeters) per hour. Snow will begin earlier today in the areas to the west, spreading into our western portions later this evening – overspreading Chicago and northwestern in later tonight.

If those forecasts hold, they would likely still fall short of the 21 inches recorded in Central Park in 1888.