Washington and Baltimore may get 2 feet of snow (61 centimeters) by Saturday, and Philadelphia could see almost as much. New York may get buried in 6 to 10 inches. Blizzard warnings and watches stretch from Virginia to Long Island, including New York and Washington.
“It has the potential to be an extremely dangerous storm,” Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, said Thursday in a conference call with reporters. “It is a potentially paralyzing storm.”
Almost 5,000 flights have already been canceled for Friday and Saturday in the U.S., according to Houston-based FlightAware. Everything from schools to rail lines were planning closures in Washington. Snow will start in the Mid-Atlantic late Friday afternoon or evening and then move up the East Coast, arriving in New York by Saturday morning, Uccellini said.
Major snowstorms are a decent barometer for the basic competency of local government, so right now might not be too soon to send thoughts and prayers to the people of the Northeast.