Winter Storm Stella to wreak havoc on US east coast

HOMES have completely frozen as the worst winter storm of the season threatens to bring major US cities to a complete standstill.

LARGE parts of the US are bracing for a deep freeze that is forecast to plunge major cities into chaos this week, but for the owner of this completely frozen house, just getting through the door will be a near-impossible task.

Waterfront homes like this one fringing Lake Ontario in New York, now resemble something out of the Disney film Frozen.

“Amazed at how many people think I sprayed foam on the place,” photographer John Kucko wrote on Twitter after posting photos and videos of lakefront homes completely entombed in ice.

“Ice House” is real, folks. 5 days of wind whipped Lake Ontario in WNY will do that (sic)”.

Millions of Americans are bracing for potentially the worst winter storm of the season with blizzards forecast to dump up to 60 centimetres of snow in New York tonight, closing schools and spelling travel chaos.

"Ice House" is real, folks. 5 days of wind whipped Lake Ontario in WNY will do that @spann @JimCantore @StormHour @WizardWeather pic.twitter.com/1kIv0YvKp5

— John Kucko (@john_kucko) 12 March 2017

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning from midnight for America’s financial capital and largest city, stretching north into Connecticut and south into New Jersey.

Additional winter storm warnings were posted from southern Maine to Virginia, south of Washington, where the National Park Service warned that the extreme cold could wipe out up to 90 per cent of the city’s famed cherry blossoms.

The home has been dubbed “ice house”. Picture: John Kucko Digital

Thousands of flights have been cancelled over the next two days, with airports in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia hardest hit, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

Weather advisories spread far inland. In Chicago, where about two inches of snow fell Monday, airlines cancelled 583 flights at Midway and O’Hare airports, setting up more potential travel havoc.

“This should be a very serious blizzard,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference, announcing that schools would be closed on Tuesday with 41 to 51 centimetres of snow expected to fall during the day.

“High end could be as much as 24 inches which would therefore put this in the category of one of the biggest snowstorms in recent memory,” he added.

New York last year experienced the biggest snowstorm in the city’s history with a record 27.3 inches (68 centimetres) falling in Central Park in 24 hours. Winter Storm Jonas paralysed parts of the Northeast and left 18 people dead.

This week’s Winter Storm Stella has formed near the coast, the collision of two low pressure systems expected to dump snow on a wide area home to tens of millions of Americans from the central Appalachian Mountains to New England.

Rapid snowfall and strong winds are expected to wreak havoc during the Tuesday commute at the end of an unusually mild winter where early signs of spring had already been in evidence up and down the East Coast.

The heaviest snow is expected to wallop New York, with one to two feet feared, and other coastal areas north of Philadelphia up to New England, National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Di Spigna told AFP.

The house fronts Lake Ontario. Picture: John Kucko Digital

FLIGHTS HIT

“We’re expecting it to be the worst snow of the season,” she said, after previous winter temperatures “well above normal.” New York is likely to see winds as strong as 40-50 miles per hour (64 to 80 kilometres per hour) and the city should brace for white-out conditions on Tuesday morning, with some coastal flooding expected, de Blasio said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) cautioned that the storm could bring record-low temperatures, as well as “difficult travel and power outages.” De Blasio warned New York’s 8.4 million residents repeatedly to stay off the roads Tuesday to make way for sanitation crews and emergency responders.

Snow is expected to begin overnight and intensify from 6am to noon on Tuesday, with snow falling as much as five to 10 centimetres per hour.

Temperatures on Monday were already icy, with afternoon highs expected to be around 9 to 1 degrees Celsius below normal from the northern Plains to the Mid-Atlantic region.

Closer to the coast, from southern New Jersey to the Carolinas, rain is expected while the southwestern United States will remain warm.

More than 3,600 flights within, into or out of the United States have been cancelled for Tuesday, mostly along the East Coast, according to FlightAware.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said airport authorities had supplies of cots and other essential items to accommodate any stranded passengers.

He warned that passengers without confirmed reservations should not go to New York’s LaGuardia Airport even after the storm ends and urged bus travellers to check with their carriers before travelling to terminals.