Wicked Winter Storm Expected To Blow Itself Out Later Today

By Mark Memmott / NPR

Published January 3, 2014 at 1:02 AM PST

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

Ice from breaking waves coats a house along the shore in Scituate, Mass.

Walking was the best way to get around early Friday in Brooklyn, where snow and strong winds made driving hazardous.

It's been a big storm: The worst may have been over, but an early Friday satellite image shows that bad weather still stretched across much of the nation.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Walking was the best way to get around early Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y., where snow and strong winds made driving hazardous.

It's been a big storm: The worst may have passed, but an early Friday satellite image shows that bad weather still stretched across much of the nation.

A man clears snow from a sidewalk in Brooklyn following a snow storm that left up to seven inches of snow on Friday. A major snowstorm producing blizzard-like conditions brought bone-chilling temperatures and high winds to the Northeast, with nearly 2 feet of snow falling in some areas of Massachusetts.

Snowmen sit in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. After a storm blew through the Washington region overnight, roads are being cleared and many schools systems are closed.

Travelers leave the Back Bay train and subway station in Boston. Dangerously cold temperatures are predicted for the rest of the day.

Become a KPBS sponsor

A worker clears snow from a stairway at the Astoria Blvd subway station in Queens. New York City public schools were closed Friday after up to seven inches of snow fell by morning in the first snowstorm of the winter.

Winds whip snow from the beach across Winthrop Shore Drive on Jan. 2 in Winthrop, Massachusetts.

A man jogs through the snow in Riverside Park in upper Manhattan in New York City.

A man and his dog contend with blowing snow in Brooklyn.

Joggers run through snow-covered Rock Creek Park, in Washington DC.

A man clears snow from a sidewalk in Brooklyn, N.Y., following a snow storm that left up to seven inches of snow on Friday.

Snowmen sit in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Roads are being cleared and many schools systems are closed after a storm blew through the region overnight.

A worker clears snow from a stairway at the Astoria Blvd subway station in Queens, N.Y. New York City public schools were closed Friday after up to seven inches of snow fell during the first local snowstorm of the winter.

Winds whip snow from the beach across Winthrop Shore Drive in Winthrop, Mass.

That winter storm we warned about Thursday has lived up to its billing:

-- "A blustering post-Christmas snowstorm that has dropped nearly 2 feet of snow just north of Boston, shut down major highways in New York and forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights nationwide is continuing its bitter cold journey through the Northeast." (The Associated Press)

-- "The first winter storm of 2014 hit Massachusetts Thursday, bringing with it nearly two feet of snow in some areas, gusting winds and frigid temperatures. Wind-whipped, fluffy snow continued to fall across the state, buffeted by wind gusts at around 40 miles per hour." (Boston's WBUR)

-- "The cold is incredible. As I write this, it's 2 above in Boston, just three degrees shy of the January record for today. I don't use the words bitter, frigid, or dangerous very much when it comes to cold, but today they are all appropriate." (Meteorologist David Epstein on the Boston Globe's Weather Wisdom blog)

-- "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the Long Island Expressway to be shut down throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties at midnight Friday in order to facilitate snow removal. Interstate 84 in the Hudson Valley was closed at 5 p.m. Both are expected to reopen at 5 a.m. Friday, conditions permitting. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said all non-essential state workers should stay home on Friday." (New York's WNYC)

-- "Two low pressure systems combined to drop anywhere from several inches up to 8 inches of snow on the Philadelphia region overnight, forcing closure of the city schools and many other districts in the area." (Philly.com)

-- "Gusting winds, blowing snow and plummeting temperature chased [Pittsburgh-area] commuters home on Thursday evening over slick roads snarled with dozens of traffic accidents that began piling up soon after the snow did." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

As The Weather Channel says, "over the last couple of days, the storm has also laid down a swath of snow in parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes, including the Chicagoland area where a foot or more of snow was measured in some locations."

The good news, according to the National Weather Service, is that the heavy snowfall "should wind down this morning across the Northeastern U.S. ... Accumulations should continue throughout the morning across coastal sections of New England before winding down as the strengthening surface low exits into the Canadian maritimes."

The bad news includes the thousands more flights that have already been delayed or canceled because of the storm. FlightAware.com says that as of 6:30 a.m. ET, 1,458 flights into or out of the U.S. had already been canceled for today. And 340 of the day's flights had already been delayed.

On Thursday, according to FlightAware, 2,366 flights into or out of the U.S. canceled and another 7,480 were delayed.

Twitter, as you'd expect, has plenty of posts about the weather. Here's one this morning from ESPN's Buster Olney:

"The dogs and cat waited at the door to go outside, took two steps into the drifts of snow and wind -- and ran back inside. They're not dumb."