More than 40 million people were under weather warnings in the northeastern United States on Monday, February 23, as a winter storm dumped shin-deep snow and officials in New York enforced a citywide travel ban. The so-called “Nor’easter” pummeled the region overnight, disrupting flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered nonessential drivers off the road until midday Monday and shut down schools. Authorities in neighboring New Jersey and Rhode Island issued similar travel restrictions.
The National Weather Service said snowfall would ebb overnight, but warned that strong winds would still create blizzard conditions in some areas. As of 4 pm local time, more than 5,600 flights in or out of the US had been canceled and hundreds more delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware.
The three major airports in New York, as well as Boston Logan Airport, saw the most cancellations. By Monday lunchtime, Rhode Island’s TF Green International Airport had registered almost 83 centimeters of snow – a record-shattering amount for the state.
‘Historic proportions’
The storm comes just weeks after the region recovered from another devastating winter weather system that was linked to more than 100 deaths. Officials did not hold back in their public warnings ahead of the latest snowfall, urging residents to stay home and avoid congesting roads.
“I know that this is a city full of people who do not like to sit still,” Mayor Mamdani said at a briefing, warning New Yorkers of continuing danger from the storm. Citing the “historic nature of this blizzard,” he announced the city would up its hourly rate from $19.14 to $30 for emergency snow shovelers in a bid to clear up public areas quicker.
Some 50 centimeters of snow were recorded in Central Park, the most at New York City’s official reporting station from a single storm in over a decade. The United Nations, which is headquartered in the city, was closed on Monday. Snowplows were deployed across the Northeast as officials sought to reduce prolonged disruption.
Major cities, including New York and Philadelphia, advertised dedicated warming centers for people caught outside in the cold. Further North, a travel ban in Rhode Island was prolonged until Tuesday, while Massachusetts’s governor announced new restrictions for nonessential driving in parts of the state. A closure of Boston public schools was extended to Tuesday due to the heavy snow.