Blizzard warnings for New York, Washington
NEW: Blizzard warning in effect as far south as Asheville, North Carolina
Washington area, New York, Philadelphia also under blizzard warning
This winter is snowiest on record for several cities, National Weather Service says
Airlines cancel flights throughout Northeast; federal workers in Washington urged to stay home
(CNN) -- Blizzard warnings on the East Coast stretched from New York to the Carolinas on Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service said.
Areas under the warning include metro Washington; Baltimore, Maryland; Newark and Atlantic City, New Jersey; Dover, Delaware; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City; and Long Island, New York.
A blizzard warning was in effect as far south as the southern Appalachian Mountains, including Asheville, North Carolina, the weather service said.
Under such a warning, the following conditions are expected to be seen for three hours or longer: wind speeds of 35 mph or more and considerable falling and/or blowing of snow with visibility near zero (less than ¼ mile), the weather service said.
In Washington, the snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour, said CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.
The snowfall is affecting people farther north than last weekend's storm, Jeras said.
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And other states are sharing in the travails: Jeras said the weather service reports that 47 states have snow on the ground.
The winter storm barreled in from the Midwest, where it kept cars off streets and planes off runways in cities such as Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The snow swept eastward, moving into Washington on Tuesday night and swooping toward New York.
The winter of 2009-2010 is the snowiest on record for several cities or airports, eclipsing records set in the winter of 1995-1996, the weather service said.
Baltimore broke its previous record of 62.5 inches of snow with a new total of 64.4 inches. Washington's Dulles International Airport shattered its previous record of 61.9 inches of snowfall with 65.7 inches, and Wilmington, Delaware, has had 59.5 inches of snow, compared with its previous record of 55.9 inches.
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Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also are close to breaking their snowfall records, the weather service said.
East Coast residents are greeting the latest winter storm with dismay and delight.
Following Washington's weekend blizzard, the storm is expected to dump more snow -- and, for the likes of Richard Bahar, more misery.
Bahar's tutoring business had to cancel classes for the week, which has meant refunds and rescheduling.
"It's a total mess," Bahar said Wednesday morning. "Most of my business colleagues are sitting at home all week."
But for many students such as Hadass Kogan, the snow days are a welcome respite from the rigors of graduate school.
"It's been really refreshing to get time off," said Kogan, a second-year student at George Washington University Law School. "I still have plenty of schoolwork to catch up on."
The nation's capital has spent the past few days digging itself out from snowfall over the weekend. By Tuesday night, some city streets were again impassable.
"The Potomac River is frozen, the George Washington Parkway a sheet of snowy ice," Bahar said. "It looks more like St. Petersburg, Russia."
For the third day, federal workers in the capital were asked to stay home Wednesday. Schools along the Eastern Seaboard -- from Washington to New York to Boston, Massachusetts -- announced snow days.
The Washington Airport Authority said it did not expect Reagan or Dulles to operate on Wednesday.
Delta Air Lines suspended flights into and out of airports in Washington, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Continental Airlines said it would suspend operations at its Newark hub Wednesday. Other major carriers also pre-emptively shifted to limited service.
Travelers were asked to check their flight status online before leaving for airports.
Amtrak was offering limited service between Boston, New York and Washington. Bus service also has been suspended in parts of the Northeast.
If the snowfall continues as predicted, Philadelphia could break its record of 65.5 inches, set in late winter 1995, forecasters said. It has already received more than 56 inches.
Three hundred miles away in Pittsburgh, artist Bill Connelly spent the weekend stuck inside his house as the road outside collected feet-high snow.
Connelly said residents have spent the past couple of days digging out cars and clearing parking spots and then putting down whatever they could find to save the spots.
"Cones, lawn chairs and so on," said Connelly. "They will put whatever is handy, to claim that spot from another visitor."
As the weather showed no signs of easing, snowed-in residents came up with creative ways to keep from going stir-crazy.
In Rockville, Maryland, Denok Sudayati's family, along with neighborhood children, built a castle with the snow that had piled up. She said she was hoping that more snow Wednesday would help smooth the castle's surface.
In Herndon, Virginia, iReporter Yvonne Lynch and her friends undertook an even more ambitious project: They built an igloo. The almost 8-foot-tall structure comfortably holds four adults and boasts a fire pit inside.
The friends used recycling bins to carry almost 3 tons of snow, molded them into about 250 bricks and sprayed water to harden the surfaces. On Tuesday, they solidified their neighborhood celebrity status with a campfire inside.
