Snow started falling Tuesday morning as the Polar Vortex descended on the Northeast, with the blizzard-like storm expected to dump up to a foot of snow on parts of the tri-state area, cripple the afternoon rush hour and create chaos at local airports.
“The heaviest snow from the storm is likely to fall on central New Jersey and Long Island, where local amounts could approach 1 foot. Near-blizzard conditions may develop on part of Long Island and along the central New Jersey coast Tuesday evening,” meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said on AccuWeather.com Tuesday.
New York City can expect 4 to 8 inches, he added.
And it’s going to be cold, with temperatures dropping from the 20s during the day to the low teens overnight – with wind chills below zero likely as the frigid blast of arctic air clamps down hard on the region.
Roughly 2,500 flights have already been cancelled nationally, with 179 at LaGuardia, 163 at Newark and 114 at Kennedy as of 10:30 a.m. Air travelers should call their carriers ahead of time to check the status of their flights.
Follow live coverage of the storm
Metro-North also warned that service could be suspended or reduced during the afternoon rush.
“Be prepared for any service changes we make based on winter weather conditions,” the railroad said in an advisory. “Suspending service ensures trains do not get stuck along the right-of-way, leaving you stranded, and making our recovery efforts extremely challenging.”
City officials issued a snow alert beginning at 9 a.m., with crews readying salt spreaders and plows to prepare for the second major storm of the winter.
The Office of Emergency Management also issued a Hazardous Travel Advisory, urging people to take mass transit and stay off the roads if possible.
The city also urged residents to check in on elderly or sickly neighbors to make sure they were OK.
Many schools in suburban New York, New Jersey and Connecticut planned to close early so kids could get home safely.
New York City education officials did not respond Tuesday morning to questions about whether schools here would close early.
Con Ed urged residents to report any downed wires they notice, and to remain inside their vehicles if a wire falls on it during the storm until repair crews arrive.
If customers lose power, they should unplug major applicances so they don’t all come on at the same time once power is restored, frying electric circuits.
It will be the second storm on Mayor de Blasio’s watch.
“The first one was so exciting, we thought we’d try another,” the mayor joked Monday, before vowing to be “very personally involved in the preparations.”
“We’re preparing with the idea in mind it could be like the one from two weeks ago,” he said.
The federal government says its offices in the Washington area will be closed Tuesday because of the storm.
It will be colder on Wednesday, with a high of just 18 and temps again bottoming out at 5 overnight. They won’t climb above freezing until Saturday.
The mayor said the city was prepared.
“We have activated all of our emergency-preparation systems. Office of Emergency Management is preparing now to be fully operational by morning. We’ll be having all of the agencies coordinating again,” he said.
The American Meteorological Society defines the “polar vortex” as a “planetary-scale cyclonic circulation, centered generally in the polar regions, extending from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere.”
What’s happening this week is that the vortex is extending further south from the North Pole than usual, bringing frigid arctic air down across Canada to the US.