Saturday, December 20, 2008

Emergency allert nothern states of America... ( cnn)

Had enough yet? More snow on the wayStory Highlights
NEW: Flight delays reported Saturday in Midwest, Northeast

NEW: Heavy, wet snow could knock out power, weather service says

Northwest braces for high wind, heavy snow


(CNN) -- Swaths of the country braced for more snow as cities from Spokane, Washington, to Hartford, Connecticut, cleaned up Saturday from major winter storms earlier this week.


Cold riders look at a warm image while waiting at a bus stop Friday in New York City.

1 of 2 "We have a window of opportunity to make significant progress on snow removal before the next expected snowstorm on Saturday night," Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said Friday.

The city received about 2 feet of snow this week, with outlying areas reporting up to 3 feet of snow by the time the storm ended Thursday evening, CNN affiliate KHQ reported.

And more is coming, according to weekend forecasts -- the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for parts of Washington state.

The snow Saturday night could exceed 2 inches an hour, the weather service said.

"The heaviest period of snowfall is expected Saturday night into Sunday morning, which will coincide with a period of strong east winds," it said.

"The combination of heavy snow and strong winds will create blizzard conditions, reducing visibility to near zero at times in blowing snow."

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At midday Saturday in the Eastern time zone, air traffic was delayed coming into Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Newark, New Jersey; and Boston, Massachusetts, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Delays exceeded 45 minutes at Teterboro, New Jersey. Watch travelers stranded in Michigan »

In northern Connecticut, western and central Massachusetts and southwest New Hampshire -- areas that received several inches of snow Friday night -- the weather service warned, "a winter storm Sunday will have a tendency for greater extremes than Friday's storm." Watch snow bury Connecticut »

"This is essentially the reincarnation of the same storm that brought the heavy snow to parts of California, southern Nevada and northern Arizona," Steve Corfidi, lead forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, told CNNRadio.

Corfidi said the storm is expected to maintain intensity Saturday, continuing east and "spreading a swath of very heavy snow and freezing rain" into Pennsylvania and New York.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, recorded 10.4 inches of snow Friday. Watch folks in Michigan contend with heavy snow »

"There could easily be up to a foot of snow over parts of Illinois, northern Indiana, perhaps into parts of Michigan and southern Wisconsin, eastward into parts of New York and Pennsylvania," Corfidi said.

About 4 to 8 inches of snow are expected to blanket New England, with 11 inches in some places, forecasters predicted.

"We got about a foot of snow last night, and it's still snowing now but not really accumulating," said iReporter Mary Ellen Wessell of Rochdale, Massachusetts. "Tomorrow they're saying very wet and heavy snow." iReport.com: What's going on in your neck of the woods?

More than 30,000 customers in New Hampshire were without power Friday night, but Wessell was pleased with utility crews' work in her area.

"We got our power back after four days," she said. "The power crews have been unbelievable -- so good. Trucks from all over the country, some from Canada. But some of my co-workers still don't have power after nine days."


The weather service said wet snow could bring down more power lines.

"Right now it's about 10 degrees. That's going to kill us," Wessell said