A winter storm moving through the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeast is expected to bring significant snowfall to the region early Friday, potentially creating treacherous driving conditions and snarling the morning commute.
Across the Northeast, snow is expected to fall at a rate of at least an inch per hour, and potentially more rapidly across eastern Long Island and southeastern Connecticut, the National Weather Service in New York said on Thursday night. New York City could see up to 5 inches of snow, and up to 7 inches could fall on Long Island.
Winter weather advisories were in effect across the New York metropolitan region, and storm warnings indicating more severe conditions were in place for Suffolk County on Long Island, Middlesex County in New Jersey, and New London County in Connecticut.
In New England, winter storm warnings have been issued for most of eastern Massachusetts and nearly all of Rhode Island.
The Washington area, slammed just days ago, was expected to get another round of snow, with the National Weather Service forecasting up to 4 inches.
The new storm system comes on the heels of a wintry wallop that coated roads with snow and ice, setting new daily snowfall records, knocking out power for a half a million people, jamming roads for miles and stranding drivers overnight in their cars along Interstate 95 south of Washington.
New York City and New Jersey on Thursday announced preparations for the coming snowfall and warned of hazardous travel conditions and potential weather-related delays.
New York City Emergency Management is activating a virtual situation room to monitor the storm system and has issued a travel advisory for Friday. Mayor Eric Adams said his team would convene at 4 a.m. Friday to review the city’s storm response and “direct resources where needed.”
At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey declared a state of emergency to begin at 10 p.m. and urged residents to stay home if they can.
“If you can work remotely tomorrow or report later than usual, you may wish to take those options and stay off the roads,” Mr. Murphy said.
The storm system, which the National Weather Service called a “quick moving but intensifying low pressure system,” has already left a trail of freezing rain, snow, and sleet across a swath of the South, including Tennessee and Kentucky.
