a powerful winter storm with heavy snow and winds hit the east coast of united states 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 Y Boston, and moves towards the south of the Atlantic.
Frost alerts were issued even in Florida (southeast), where the National Weather Service (NWS) even warned about the risk of iguanas – a species of lizards that can weigh up to nine kilos – falling from the 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 called on New Yorkers to stay home on Twitter because “Mother Nature tends to do 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 flights.
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 state governments of New York Y 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.
The residents of Massachusetts They were rushing Friday to buy groceries as well as ice and snow melting products intended to help keep sidewalks and driveways clear.
On Saturday morning, Public Works of Boston reported that 500 snow plows were already working on the 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 tonight with care, 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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