Thousands of flights in the United States were cancelled on Saturday as parts of the East Coast braced for a shellacking by a powerful winter storm packing heavy snow and high winds.
Salt machines and snowplows were at the ready in New York, where Mayor Eric Adams tweeted that a foot (30 centimeters) of snow was predicted, but warned that "Mother Nature has a tendency to do what she wants."
Some 3,400 flights were already canceled for Saturday traveling within, into or out of the United States, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Cancellations on Friday totaled more than 1,450.
The National Weather Service warned of "whiteout conditions and nearly impossible travel at times," along portions of the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, with snowfall accumulations greater than a foot expected in parts of the same region.
The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency while Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a snow emergency.
The storm will produce extremely cold temperatures with dangerous wind chills Saturday night into Sunday morning, the NWS said.
The National Weather Service Eastern Region reported that the storm was expected to intensify rapidly over the next 24 hours, with pressure expected to fall around 35 millibars by Saturday evening. This rapid intensification is sometimes referred to as a "bomb cyclone."
The blizzard comes on the heels of a similar winter storm that blanketed a swath of Eastern North America -- from Georgia to Canada -- just two weeks ago, cutting power to thousands of homes and also disrupting thousands of flights.
