The north-eastern US was braced on Saturday for a powerful storm that forecasters said could bring 18in or more of heavy and wet snow to parts of the region.
Heavy and blowing snow expected in the afternoon in New England could result in near-blizzard conditions that would make travel difficult, forecasters said. Power outages were possible. It was also possible that the nor’easter could dump as much as a foot of snow on suburban Boston.
Gale warnings were in effect for the US coast north from the Carolinas. CNN reported that the storm could intensify fast enough to become a dramatically named “bomb cyclone”, a phenomenon characterised by a rapid pressure drop and increased precipitation and winds.
National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Clair of Gray, Maine said the storm was beginning as rain and was expected to turn to snow on Saturday afternoon. In some areas snowfall of up to 3in per hour was possible.
“This is the first big one,” Clair said of the beginning of the winter season. “There has been some snow up in the mountains, but this is the first one across where most people live.”
While localized totals of more than 18in were possible in the higher terrain, Clair said that in general, the region was expected to get hit hardest just inland, where forecasts called for about a foot of snow.
Areas south of New England, including New York, were expected to see heavy rain and strong winds. In Canada, the storm was expected to affect southern Quebec and New Brunswick.
