A powerful, fast-moving winter storm was blanketing the US Northeast on Tuesday with heavy snow, creating treacherous driving conditions for millions of Americans, while forcing schools to close and wreaking havoc on air travel.
The National Weather Service said that than 30 million people from West Virginia northeast into New England were under a winter storm warning as the Nor'easter pummelled parts of the area with as much as six inches (15cm) of heavy, wet snow overnight.
In New York City, rain turned to snow in the early morning hours. The city was expected to get as much as seven inches of snow throughout the day, making for hazardous driving conditions.
Snow was falling at a rate of up to two inches an hour across the Lower Hudson Valley, just north of New York, the city's emergency management agency said on social media.
Snow hit New York overnight
Reuters
New York Mayor Eric Adams said: "The roads are not bad; there is some wet, heavy snow coming down...It's great to see there has been little or no cars on the road."
Head of the Manhattan-based snow removal company Novus Maintenance Jan Gautam said he was up all night and into the morning assembling his crews to run more than a dozen snow ploughs and 30 sidewalk ploughs to hit the streets on New York.
He said: "Our phones haven't stopped ringing since the snow started. We'll be out there as long as it's snowing. In a storm like this, with so much snow coming fast, we have to go back to the same locations over and over, to keep it clear and safe."
Gautam manages about 100 employees who service more than 250 customers across the city, including hospitals and hotels.
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Morning commuters make their way through wind and snow during a Nor'easter winter storm
Reuters
Meanwhile, some 155,000 homes and businesses were without power in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia, according to Poweroutage.us.
School districts across the region cancelled in-person classes for the day, including New York City, which was holding classes remotely for its one million students.
More than 1,000 fights to and from New York's LaGuardia, Boston Logan International and Newark Liberty International airports were either delayed or cancelled, according to Flightaware.com.
Strong winds of up to 40 miles per hour (64 kilometres per hour) and coastal flooding were also forecast along the New England coast, as well as the New Jersey shore areas and Long Island.
Snow falling around a gazebo in Sakura Park in upper Manhattan, New York City,
Reuters
It comes as the winter storm bearing down on the New York City region could hamper voter turnout for a special election to fill the US congressional seat vacated by the ousting of Republican George Santos.
A Democratic victory would narrow the razor-thin majority in the lower house currently enjoyed by a fractious Republican caucus.