December 22, 2008
A MASSIVE winter storm blanketed the US West Coast with snow, sleet and ice while blizzards and snow squalls struck the northeast, making travel dangerous, officials said overnight.
The storm snarled holiday air traffic across the country, with delays of more than an hour at major airports in San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; New Jersey and New York.
Travel was treacherous in the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, with heavy rain, sleet and snow expected until 10 am Monday, the National Weather Service said in its winter storm warning for the region.
"This is probably one of the worst storms since 1990,'' weather service meteorologist Dana Felton told AFP by phone from Seattle, adding that the last big storm of this scale was on December 25, 1996.
"This is definitely a once-in-a-decade type of storm.''
Total snow amounts were forecast from 13 to 25 cm Monday morning across the northwest, with more than 30cm in local mountains, it said.
Highway drivers "should expect to encounter hazardous winter weather conditions,'' particularly at higher elevations, with 10 to 15 cm of new snow were expected overnight above 1,066 metres, it added.
Overnight snow, ice and freezing temperatures led to "treacherous conditions,'' road closures and downed powerlines throughout the state, the Oregonian newspaper reported.
Washington state saw highway closures and "major problems'' at its Seattle-Tacoma airport, with thousands of stranded passengers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
In the northeast, which is more accustomed to wintry weather, blizzard conditions and strong winds caused frequent whiteouts, with the weather service warning that "travel will be extremely hazardous'' through Monday due to a snowstorm sweeping Lake Michigan to the Atlantic Coast.
