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A fast-moving winter storm is expected to barrel through parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning Wednesday, producing freezing rain, strong winds, hazardous travel conditions along the I-95 corridor, and as much as two feet of snow in some areas. For some locations, including New York City, this could be the biggest snowstorm in years.
The nor’easter is expected to stretch nearly 1,000 miles from North Carolina up to New England, according to the National Weather Service. It is also forecast to bring ice accumulations, tree damage and power outages. Schools operating in person from Northern Virginia to Philadelphia have either already closed or announced plans to shut down early on Wednesday.
The storm will unleash a hazardous mix of rain and then heavy snow starting Wednesday, kicking off in western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, where it will let loose sheets of freezing rain, the Weather Service predicted.
From there, the system is expected to spread, stretching north to Boston, southern New Hampshire and Albany. It could impact areas as far west as Pittsburgh and as far south as Washington and Northern Virginia.
Late Wednesday morning, heavy snow is forecast to overtake areas near and northwest of Interstate 95 in the Mid-Atlantic region. Washington, Philadelphia and other major cities can expect to be blasted with a wintry mix of rain and snow. Western Maryland and southern central Pennsylvania are forecast to bear the brunt of snow accumulations, with as much as two feet of snow falling.
By Wednesday evening, the system will churn farther northeast, dropping heavy snow on northern New Jersey and southern New York State, including New York City, the Weather Service said. By Wednesday night, the impact of the winter storm will be felt in southern New England, the service predicted.
Storm preparations across the East Coast were underway. Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore said Tuesday that the city was fully prepared for the storm and asked residents to avoid travel if possible. In Philadelphia, where up to six inches of snow could fall, officials said crews were loading up tons of salt and putting plows on their trucks.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City said on Tuesday that sanitation trucks would be begin anti-icing treatments overnight and that salt spreaders would be out in advance of the snow, which could slam the region with eight to 12 inches. “There’s lines in the store already,” Mary LaRosa of Mineola told CBS New York. “People are shopping like crazy buying everything.”
In Massachusetts, where a foot of snow is also expected, Gov. Charlie Baker asked residents to prepare and avoid travel during the heaviest snowfall time. “It gets busy very quickly,” Colby Thomason of Milton Village Hardware in Milton, Mass., told WHDH. “It’s funny, every year no one seems prepared for the snow until the last minute.”
The major winter storm bearing down on the Northeast has the potential to snarl distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in the region.
The storm is expected to bring strong winds, more than six inches of snow and blizzard conditions in many areas on Wednesday and Thursday, threatening to hamper highway travel and knock out power, according to the National Weather Service.
Two giant rivals, UPS and FedEx, are working to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine to vaccination sites from Pfizer’s plants in Michigan and Wisconsin. A spokesman for UPS, Matthew O’Connor, said the company had a team of meteorologists monitoring the weather around the clock.
“We develop contingency plans based on weather forecasts and local conditions, enabling our employees to safely deliver what matters most,” Mr. O’Connor said in a statement. “Should roadways or airports be closed, we will observe all closures, and UPS will be ready to deliver as soon as it is safe.”
He added that UPS’s new health care command center, set up at its air hub in Louisville, Ky., was keeping track of the Covid-19 vaccine shipments, which must be kept frozen and require special handling. The command center “can step in with contingency plans should it appear that a package may be delayed,” he said.
Gen. Gustave F. Perna, who heads the operations of Operation Warp Speed, the federal vaccine distribution effort, told reporters on Monday that officials were ready to deal with any issues that could disrupt smooth deliveries, including wrong delivery addresses and truck or airplane accidents.
“I know you’ve seen the weather report,” General Perna said, noting that the storm “could be a problem.” He continued, “My responsibility to deliver safe and effective vaccines means get ahead of that problem.”
About 600 sites, many of them hospitals, were scheduled to receive the vaccine this week, nearly three million doses in all. Some 500,000 doses were delivered on Monday to 142 of the sites around the country.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a Tuesday news conference that vaccine delivery and administration would continue despite the weather.
“There’s nothing about the storm at this point that should disrupt the supply of vaccine coming in,” he said.
But the city will close virus testing sites run by the city’s Health and Hospitals system from 2 p.m. on Wednesday to noon on Thursday, said Deanne B. Criswell, the commissioner of emergency management.
Restaurants have already been ordered by the city to close their roadway dining programs at 2 p.m. Wednesday. They were already grappling with the loss of indoor dining this week.
The closure order is temporary, and officials said it could be lifted by Thursday night. But the major snowstorm, expected to sweep into the area on Wednesday afternoon, will pose a significant test for restaurant owners and of how the city’s now-permanent outdoor dining program can withstand severe winter weather.
The city urges restaurants to remove the tops of their outdoor dining structures, but it will not require them to take those structures off the street.
The word “nor’easter” usually elicits images of streets blanketed in heaps of snow and power lines defeated by intense winds. But what, exactly, makes a storm a nor’easter?
“There’s no strict definition,” said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. “It’s sort of a loose term.”
Broadly speaking, the term characterizes a weather system in which winds just off the East Coast collide with surface winds from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States amid areas of low pressure.
Nor’easters usually occur between November and March, Mr. Otto said, but they can also form earlier in the fall and in the late spring. The storms can develop 100 miles east or west of the coastline, from as far south as Georgia to New Jersey and beyond up north, according to the Weather Service.
Their effect can be seen in the form of heavy snow, freezing rain, sleet and strong winds. Wind speeds in a nor’easter can reach hurricane force, with rainfall usually hovering around one to two inches. Snowfall can accumulate to a foot or two on average, but can be “pretty variable” over all, Mr. Otto said.
In March 1993, during the so-called Storm of the Century, a nor’easter produced four feet of snow in some areas, according to the Weather Service.
Given that nor’easters can produce dangerous conditions such as power outages, icy roads and fallen trees, Mr. Otto said it was recommended that people prepare for the storm in advance, stocking up on necessities such as batteries and extra food early, to avoid traveling during the worst of the weather.
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