Weather
New York City faced its first blizzard warning in nine years Monday as a powerful nor’easter dumped up to nearly 2 feet of snow, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands across the Northeast, and triggered widespread travel disruptions nationwide.
The storm blanketed large swaths of the region, with more than 69 million people under winter alerts at various points and blizzard warnings stretching roughly 600 miles along the East Coast. In New York City alone, snowfall totals reached between about 16 and 19 inches by Monday afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, warning the event could rank among the city’s 10 worst storms in roughly 150 years, according to reporting by NBC News.
The mayor said the city remained under a state of emergency even as conditions slowly began improving. He urged residents to stay indoors, citing dangerous travel conditions caused by heavy snow accumulation and refreezing on streets and sidewalks.
Across the broader Northeast, the storm brought severe impacts beyond the nation’s largest city. NBC News reported that more than 600,000 utility customers lost power Monday, with Massachusetts accounting for nearly half of the outages. States including New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania declared emergencies and imposed travel restrictions.
Transportation systems were heavily disrupted, particularly in the New York metropolitan area. According to NBC News, more than 2,500 flights were canceled at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports by late morning, contributing to thousands of cancellations nationwide. Hazardous conditions led to numerous traffic incidents, including an overturned state transportation plow truck on Long Island during high winds and heavy snowfall.
Schools across several major cities, including New York and Boston, closed for the day. Mamdani said New York City public schools planned to resume in-person classes Tuesday.
The National Weather Service warned that strong winds with gusts reaching about 60 mph in some coastal areas could continue to cause blowing snow, power outages, and dangerous conditions into the evening. Despite the storm’s intensity, New York City authorities said they were not aware of any fatalities in public areas as of Monday afternoon. Forecasters expect snowfall to taper off later Monday, though lingering winds and freezing temperatures could prolong disruptions across the Northeast into the night.
