Powerful Snowstorm Expected to Affect Much of the East

Winter storm warnings were in place for a large swath of the Eastern United States on Sunday, from northwestern North Carolina to New York, with as much as two feet of snow and dangerous travel conditions expected in some places into Tuesday, forecasters said.

The storm brought snow and rain to California last week before moving through the Midwest, leaving about eight inches of snow in Chicago, the National Weather Service said.

“It’s pushing eastward and it’s starting to snow into the Mid-Atlantic up into the Northeast, and we do anticipate a pretty broad area of potentially heavy snows,” said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service who is based in Baltimore.

Snow was expected in major metropolitan areas, from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, as well inland across northeastern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and most of New England, Mr. Oravec said.

The heaviest snow would likely fall in northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey.

“Anytime you have a storm that moves across those areas you typically have your usual high impacts especially with travel, both car and airline,” he said.

Heavy snow was expected to develop northward from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts on Sunday evening into Monday and continue through Maine on Tuesday.

Travel along and west of the Interstate 95 corridor from Pennsylvania to Maine would likely be affected, the National Weather Service said.

It is a “relatively slow-moving storm,” Mr. Oravec said, but the expected snowfall is average for a winter storm this time of year.

In New York, 12 to 18 inches of snow were expected for much of the Tristate region, the National Weather Service said, with up to 24 inches possible in some places. Near blizzard-like conditions were possible along the coast on Monday.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in-person schools would be closed on Monday because of the snowstorm.

A warning issued for the Washington metropolitan area and Baltimore predicted up to nine inches of snow in some places. The expected snowfall would break 709 days without more than an inch of snow recorded at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Mr. Oravec said.

In Pennsylvania, forecasters said travel could be impossible and predicted 11 to 15 inches of snow in places. Some areas in central, northern and northwestern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania could receive up to 18 inches of snow, with winds of up to 35 m.p.h.

Freezing rain was also likely in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, the National Weather Service said.