New York City sees biggest snowfall of season, grounding flights

New York City and the Northeast had a slushy start Tuesday as a storm brought the first significant snowfall of the season to the region, grounding hundreds of flights at area airports.

Manhattan’s Central Park received 1.8 inches (5 centimetres) overnight, with precipitation likely switching over to rain for the rest of the day, said Rob Carolan, Bloomberg Radio meteorologist and owner of Hometown Forecast Services. Areas to the north and west of the city could get upwards to 8 inches, as well as parts of southern New England.

Across the US, more than 450 flights were cancelled as of 7:57am. New York time, with almost 300 of them going in or out of New York area airports, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. Boston also had 84 flights scrubbed and Toronto reported 52 halted.

“This is more kind of a nuisance storm,” Carolan said.

While a modest accumulation historically for New York, this is the biggest this winter. The season has seen almost nothing fall and temperatures have been mild through a combination of storms tracking further to the west due to à La Nina in the Pacific Ocean and a kink in the jet stream. More snow is possible later this week, but exact amounts aren’t clear yet.

While it’s the deepest snow of the season, “it’s still not much,” said Bryan Ramsey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in New York. “Anything else we see, at least in New York City, will be liquid.”

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