Millions of Americans brace for blizzard conditions as storm threatens East Coast

The weather service said 1 to 2 feet (about 30 to 61 centimeters) of snow was possible in many areas as it issued blizzard warnings for New York City and Long Island, Boston and coastal communities in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Flooding was also possible in parts of New York and New Jersey, it said.

A rapidly intensifying storm triggered blizzard warnings Saturday for New York City, New Jersey and Boston as communities along the East Coast prepared for the Sunday arrival of heavy snow and damaging winds.

The National Weather Service increased its assessment of the potential severity of a storm that was projected to be much milder only days earlier.

The weather service said 1 to 2 feet (about 30 to 61 centimetres) of snow was possible in many areas as it issued blizzard warnings for New York City and Long Island, Boston and coastal communities in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Flooding was also possible in parts of New York and New Jersey, it said.

“While we do get plenty of these nor'easters that produce heavy snow and strong impacts, it's been several years since we saw one of this magnitude across this large of a region in this very populated part of the country,” said Cody Snell, a meteorologist at the service's Weather Prediction Centre.

Snell said the storm would arrive Sunday morning in areas around Washington before stretching toward Philadelphia and New York City and reaching Boston in the evening.

The weather service said the storm could begin as rainfall in some places before worsening, with the heaviest snowfall expected at night and as much as 2 inches (5 centimetres) of snow per hour at times in some areas, before tapering off by Monday afternoon.