Northeast US braces for worst snowstorm of season

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning from midnight Monday (0400 GMT) Tuesday to midnight Tuesday in the New York region, extending south in New Jersey and north into Connecticut.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled ahead of the storm, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

Dubbed Winter Storm Stella and forming near the coast, the collision of two low pressure systems is expected to dump snow on a wide area home to millions of Americans from the central Appalachians to New England.

The weather service said whiteout conditions in New York are expected to make travel "extremely dangerous." Winter storm warnings have been issued from southern Maine to Virginia, south of Washington.

The treacherous conditions are expected to wreak havoc on the Tuesday morning commute. In New York, America's largest city, home to 8.4 million people, residents were warned to expect closures, delays and cancellations.

The heaviest snow is expected to wallop the coast north of Philadelphia up to New England, with one to two feet (30-60 centimeters) feared in New York, National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Di Spigna told AFP.

"This is a very impressive system," she said. "We're expecting it to be the worst snow of the season," she added. Winter has so far been relatively mild in the northeast with temperatures "well above normal."

The blizzard warning in effect for New York is likely to see winds of 25-35 miles per hour (40 to 56 kilometers per hour) and could see gusts as high as 55 miles per hour, which could hamper visibility, Di Spigna said.