The late-season winter nor’easter that was predicted by forecasters to dump up to 2 feet of snow in New York City instead only hit the Big Apple with sleet and a few inches of snow.
Officials warned 50 million people on Monday to prepare for the would-be crippling effects of a blizzard that was supposed to hit the Northeast region of the country Tuesday with up to 24 inches of snow and 60mph winds.
A state of emergency was even declared in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland, as many flocked to prepare for what was thought to be the worst storm of the winter season.
But Tuesday morning around 9am, forecasters significantly downgraded their predictions of New York City receiving up to 2 feet of snow and canceled the blizzard warning, and instead now predict that the Big Apple will only receive 4 to 8 inches of snow.
The storm tracked a little farther west than forecasters originally anticipated, resulting in a sloppy mix of snow and sleet for larger portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
With temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal for this time of year, the harsh winter weather has already claimed lives in Milwaukee after two elderly men on different sides of the city collapsed while shoveling snow on Monday.
In addition, a teenage girl died in GIlford, New Hampshire when she crashed into a tree Tuesday morning, state police said. The girl crashed around 7am at the intersection of Rocky Road and Cherry Valley Road, as her identity has not been publicly released.
More than 7,600 US flights were cancelled for Tuesday, with airports in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia hardest hit amid reports that up to four inches of snow an hour will fall during the peak of the storm. Some 200 people were said to be stranded at John F. Kennedy Airport.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave a press conference Tuesday morning where he acknowledged that the storm was not as powerful as expected to be.
‘Mother nature is an unpredictable lady, all of the forecasts said the storm would hit New York City and Long Island the hardest, so we deployed accordingly and New York City and Long Island had been the focus of our activity,’ Cuomo said.
‘The way the weather pattern is actually shaping up, the storm has moved westward and is less than a snow storm in New York City and Long Island; it is more sleet and precipitation.
‘This is basically good news from what we were expecting.’
But Cuomo warned that officials have to watch the temperatures outside, as the sleet could turn into ice and make commuting more difficult.
In addition, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also said the storm was very ‘different than what was projected.’
‘The National Weather Service does everything they know how to do. Mother Nature still makes its own decisions,’ he said during a press conference Tuesday.
De Blasio said despite the change in the forecast, a state of emergency for the city will remain in effect until midnight.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said a wintry mix would continue to fall into the early afternoon, then taper off by mid- to late afternoon.
‘We’re looking at four to six inches across much of New York City, maybe just over six inches for northern parts of the city, then lower amounts in Long Island,’ Pollina said.
‘As you head north into Westchester and northeast New Jersey up to a foot is still possible for the north,’ he added.
A mix of sleet and snow was falling over the city, where residents on the Upper East Side left for work on the subway and buses were running, while others shoveled snow off the sidewalk.
Pollina added that it was no longer the worst New York storm of the season.
Officials announced that above ground subway service would resume on Tuesday beginning at 6pm.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Tuesday that the state of emergency he declared on Monday remains in his state.
‘It’s a tale of three storms for New Jersey,’ Christie told CBS2. ‘In the southern part of our state you’re dealing with mostly rain, freezing rain and sleet.
‘On the Jersey Shore this is going to be the most difficult time for us because high tide has come in and we’re going to see some moderate flooding at the shore.
‘Then here in the northern part of that state you’re going to see a lot of snow, a lot of wind and it’s going to make clearing the roads up here in the northern part of the state even more difficult.’
New Jersey State Police said they’ve responded to more than 80 accidents and more than 130 assistance calls since midnight, according to CBS2.
Officials in several northeast states have warned of unsafe driving conditions caused by the snow, which have spurred statewide travel bans in Connecticut and modified public transportation services in several other states.
In Milwaukee, a 17-car pileup involving 12 cars and five tractor trailers crashed just before noon on Monday on the northbound lanes of I-43. Three people suffered minor injuries but there were no deaths.
Several crashes were also reported in Michigan due to the snowy weather.
Meanwhile, Illinois State Police say snowy weather conditions caused two crashes on a Chicago expressway that involved a total of 34 cars.
A State Police spokesman says seven people sustained minor injuries in Monday night’s pileup on the Kennedy Expressway.
Both wrecks occurred in the express lanes of the highway on the city’s North Side.
Police say both crashes happened in the same area and the express lanes were closed for hours. Local lanes of the expressway remained open.
Blizzard warnings were issued for areas in eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, southeast New York, Connecticut, northern Rhode Island, western/central Massachusetts, southeast New Hampshire and southern Maine on Monday.
As millions woke up to the storm Tuesday morning, attorney generals in New York and Pennsylvania issued a warning about price-gouging amid panic buying.
TUESDAY’S SNOWFALL STORM TOTAL
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4311374/Storm-Stella-causes-states-emergency-claims-two-lives.html#ixzz4bL1Yqwwi
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Good news/outcome for Angel.
They’re running that Chicken Little sh#t into the ground with these ‘MAJOR’ storm warnings.
I WANT SPRING!!!
😆 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hang in there Angel. it’s coming.
6 Days… (supposedly) LOL
This type of “warning” about each new “crisis” is seemingly, to my mind, an attempt to ascertain just what level of fear and panic can be introduced into the sheeple, and just how awake folks are to the manipulation passed off as “public service”. As the population starts to sway the graph in the direction of liberty and preparedness, not panic and fear, you can bet “they” (the CORPORATE handlers) will be alerted that their false paradigm of control is losing it’s efficacy. They will then begin the next phase of their plan for complete domination of the world, and release the dual kraken of disease and famine.
Yep! Can’t predict tomorrows weather, but scientists claim they know exactly what global warming will do to the world a hundred, or even a thousand years from now. LOL.
It reminds me of that stupid robot on “Lost in Space.” “Danger, danger!”
haha aw man Angel. i remember that.
Although we did have a change over to sleet and freezing rain at 9:50am, it went back to all snow by 11:00am, and stopped around 5:30pm. We got over fifteen inches. It would have been more if it wasn’t for the sleet. It took me four hours to shovel everything off, it was indeed like cement. I really hope this was the last major storm………the last SNOW or ICE storm. *collapses into bed*
Yes, it was’t the possible 24″ they warned us about, but it was Bad (esp. after that taste of Spring we had last week)! That Sleet was like Nails/even Spikes! Then more snow on top of it… Ugly!
Get some rest, Sunfire.
I fear we will see more snow…Seen it before (after Easter)… 🙁