This just in: President Biden’s state department speech has been cancelled today; it will be rescheduled later in the week when the weather is more accommodating.
A powerful nor’easter is hitting the Northeast today, and New York City could see as much as two feet of snow.
CNN’s Bill Weir will be live later today with the latest updates on the storm.
Large chunks of ice seen floating in Lake Michigan as major winter storm moves from Midwest to the East Coast. https://t.co/5dQ2cAQLv7 pic.twitter.com/3lZyih0s73
— ABC News (@ABC) February 1, 2021
More than 1,300 flights across the United States were preemptively canceled ahead of the nor’easter according to Flightaware.com.
Major hubs in the New York City area such as LaGuardia, Newark and John F. Kennedy are reporting 70% to 80% of Monday’s scheduled flights as canceled.
A potent combination of heavy snow, gusty winds and coastal flooding will make travel difficult to impossible and could knock out power to some. On a five-tiered scale from the National Weather Service, New York City could see a level five or extreme impacts.
In advance of the storm, New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, declared a state of emergency.
Heavier snowfall will develop through the day in the Northeast as a low-pressure system intensifies off the East Coast. Snowfall rates could be greater than one or two inches per hour when this heavier snow develops this morning, especially from northeast Pennsylvania into northern New Jersey, the New York City metro and coastal southern New England.
Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories are in effect from the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic states into New England. The worst winter conditions are generally expected in the areas under winter storm warnings.
Sources: CNN and The Weather Channel