The storm stretched 1,000 miles between Kentucky and Massachusetts but hit especially hard along the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, creating a perilous ride home for millions of motorists
A swirling storm with the potential for more than a foot of snow clobbered the mid-Atlantic and the urban Northeast on Tuesday, grounding thousands of flights, closing government offices in the nation's capital and making a mess of the evening commute.
The storm stretched 1,000 miles between Kentucky and Massachusetts but hit especially hard along the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, creating a perilous ride home for millions of motorists.
The snow came down harder and faster than many people expected. Forecasters said some places could get 1 to 2 inches an hour, with wind gusts up to 50 mph. A blizzard warning was posted for parts of Massachusetts, including Cape Cod.
The eastern end of Massachusetts was bracing for the worst of it, with 8 to 12 inches forecast for greater Boston. Further to the west, the Pioneer Valley was expected to see 4 to 8 inches by the time the storm clears out on Wednesday.
The approaching storm caused the unusual result of forcing a delay in the governor’s annual State of the Commonwealth address.
Gov. Deval Patrick called off the annual address, which had been scheduled for Tuesday night in the statehouse, on Tuesday afternoon. He also announced he was sending state employees home early in advance of the storm and urged private employers to do the same.
"In an almost poetic irony, we're postponing the State of the Commonwealth to a time to be determined," Patrick said. "I think it's probably not a good idea to have people ski or snowshoe to the State of the Commonwealth.”
The storm also caused the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to postpone presentations by the three remaining casino developers before a hearing on Beacon Hill
MGM Resorts International, Mohegan Sun and Wynn Resorts were all scheduled to appear before the commission on Wednesday, but those presentations have now been shifted in anticipation of a significant storm.
MGM was supposed to present the plan for its $800 million Springfield resort casino Wednesday morning, but that will now take place on Thursday at 9:30 a.m., according to the commission. Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno will also be in attendance, presenting along with MGM officials.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Western Massachusetts from 10 p.m. Tuesday through 1 p.m., and a wind chill advisory that is effect to 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The forecast called for 4 to 8 inches, but as much of a concern were the freezing temperatures and the wind chill.
Winds of 5 to 15 miles per hour were causing a wind chill of minus 10 degrees.
The high temperature at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee was 19 degrees at 1 a.m. but it proceeded to fall during the day. By 6 p.m., it was 10 degrees.
The wind child was recorded at minus 6 degrees
The forecast for the region calls for snow in the morning, while temperatures should hover in the mid teens while wind chill will be around minus 12 degrees.
Snow in Springfield began to fall at around 5 p.m. and in a little more than an hour sidewalks and roadways were beginning to be covered over.
In Boston, Mayor Martin J. Walsh declared a snow emergency effective at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in anticipation of the city’s third significant snowstorm of winter.
Schools were cancelled for Wednesday, but city workers were not told to stay home.
Emergency parking bans were declared throughout the valley.
In Granby, no on-street parking was permitted after 4 p.m. Tuesday. It will remain in effect until further notice
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Chicopee banned parking on all main roads and on the odd side of secondary roads, beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The ban will be in place until noon Wednesday.
Northampton’s parking ban was to go into effect at midnight, banning parking on all city streets and city-owned parking lots until 6 a.m. Wednesday. Parking on Main Street will be prohibited between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. while the Armory Street Parking Lot remained open except from 8 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Springfield declared a parking ban until further notice.
In Springfield, no parking is permitted on the even side of streets from 7 p.m. – 7 a.m., and is not permitted on the odd side from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In Easthampton, no parking is permitted on all city streets from 3 p.m. Tuesday until noon Wednesday.
IN Holyoke, parking is banned on the even sides of streets until 7 a.m. Thursday.
In Longmeadow, a parking ban for all streets will remain in effect from the time the winter precipitation starts until 12 hours after it stops.
Bradley International Airport remained open, but several flights were cancelled, particularly those to and from cities in the path of the storm including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
All along the East Coast, the storm caused havoc.
Late in the afternoon, highways in the New York City metropolitan area were jammed, and blowing snow tripled or even quadrupled drive times.
"I just want to get to the Bronx," motorist Peter Neuwens lamented. "It's a big place. Why can't I get there?"
In Jersey City, N.J., Stanley Gaines, wearing just a thin jacket and huddling beneath an overhang as snow stung his face, said he had been stuck for more than an hour waiting for a ride home from his appointment at a Veterans Affairs clinic.
"I'm waiting on anything I can get: a taxi, a shuttle, a bus," Gaines said, squinting to read the destination on an approaching bus in near white-out conditions. "I didn't really pay attention to the weather this morning because there was no snow on the ground, and now — this!"
In White Plains, N.Y., Anthony Schirrone pulled over his car to scrape snow from the windshield.
"I just did this five minutes ago," he said. "But it's coming down too fast."
The storm was blamed for at least one death in Maryland after a car fishtailed into the path of a tractor-trailer on a snow-covered road about 50 miles northwest of Baltimore.
The car's driver was thrown from the vehicle.
Forecasters said the storm could bring 10 to 14 inches of snow to Philadelphia and southern New England and up to a foot in New York City, to be followed by bitter cold as arctic air from Canada streams in. Washington was expecting 4 to 8 inches.
This one was a conventional storm that developed off the coast and moved its way up the Eastern Seaboard, pulling in cold air from the arctic. Unlike the epic freeze of two weeks ago, it was not caused by a kink in the polar vortex, the winds that circulate around the North Pole.
Pennsylvania's Transportation Department said it had already blown through more than half of its $189 million winter weather budget.
"Lots of nuisance storms this season have meant that PennDOT crews have been plowing and treating roads more frequently this winter," spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt said.
About 3,000 flights Tuesday were canceled, with airports from Washington to Boston affected. More than 1,000 flights for Wednesday were called off as well. Amtrak planned to cut back train service in the afternoon.
The rush to get home early by many workers was evident in Philadelphia, where many commuter trains were packed.
The storm put a damper on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's inauguration, forcing the cancellation of an evening party on Ellis Island, while the Philadelphia Flyers postponed their Tuesday night hockey game.
Schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky stayed closed for an extra day after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, or sent students home early. Some parents kept their kids home all day, unwilling to put them on slippery roads for a few hours of school.
Federal workers in the Washington area were also given the day off.
Standing in Philadelphia's LOVE Park with snow swirling around her, visitor Jenn Byrne of Portland, Ore., said the nasty weather put a crimp in her plans to do a "giant walking tour" of the city. But she vowed to soldier on, taking cabs instead of trudging. She wasn't wearing snow boots.
"I'll keep going. Just the means of transportation will change a bit," Byrne said.
Others shrugged off the snow as well.
In Herndon, Va., where voters were casting ballots in a special election that was likely to determine control of the state Senate, Earlene Coleman said she felt obligated to make her selection: "It only made sense to come out and do my duty."
Construction worker Tony Cockrell, stopping for coffee at a Hagerstown, Md., gas station, said he planned to continue driving to work sites in western Maryland and northern Virginia to supervise the installation of insulation in building projects.
"If you don't work, you don't get paid," he said, adding that deep cold is good for business. "We're trying to get stuff insulated so it doesn't freeze up."
Patrick Johnson, Shira Schoenberg, Robert Rizzuto and Garrett Quinn, staff writers for The Republican, contributed to this report.