Severe winter storm hits eastern US, forcing thousands of flights to be canceled

A powerful winter storm with heavy snow and strong winds hit the east coast of U.S this Saturday, which forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and activated weather alerts for a region where some 70 million people reside.

The phenomenon is particularly intense in the Northeast, where it hits the cities of New York and Boston, and moves towards the South Atlantic.

Frost alerts were issued even in Florida (southeast), where the National Weather Service (NWS) even warned about the risk of falling iguanas – a species of lizards that can weigh up to nine kilos – from trees because they are temporarily frozen.

Salt spreaders and snow plows work on the streets of New York, where about 10 centimeters of snow accumulated on the streets on Saturday morning.

Mayor Eric Adams asked New Yorkers to stay home through the Twitter network because “Mother Nature usually does what she wants.”

Some 3,500 flights, both domestic and international, were canceled Saturday in the United States, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Some 700 flights that were due to take off on Sunday have also been suspended.

Cancellations on Friday totaled more than 1,450.

The NWS warned of “dangerous blizzard conditions” along the Atlantic and New England coasts, with snow accumulations of more than 2 feet (60 cm) expected outside of Boston.

Forecasts speak of snowfall between 60 and 120 cm per hour, and strong winds threaten to cause “scattered power outages”.

Blackouts and the inability to travel on highways can also be expected, the service said.

– Bomb cyclone –

The governments of the states of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency and the mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, declared a snow emergency.

“It’s going to get pretty ugly,” Wu said in a television interview on Saturday. “It’s going to be a historic storm,” he said.

Massachusetts residents rushed Friday to buy groceries as well as ice and snow melting products to help keep sidewalks and driveways clear.

As of Saturday morning, Boston Public Works reported that 500 snowplows were already at work on city streets.

The storm will bring extremely cold temperatures with dangerous wind gusts between Saturday night and Sunday morning, the weather service said.

“Come home carefully tonight, stay home through the weekend, avoid any unnecessary travel,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement, noting that there would be especially heavy snowfall on Long Island, New York. and the lower Hudson Valley.

He also urged people who had to travel to fill up their cars with gas and carry supplies such as ice scrapers, blankets and water in their vehicles.

The region’s weather service said the storm would rapidly intensify over the next 24 hours, and that pressure could drop sharply, creating an event sometimes referred to as a “bomb cyclone.”

The storm follows a similar one that blanketed much of eastern North America from Georgia to Canada with snow two weeks ago, leaving many homes without power and disrupting thousands of air connections.

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