U.S. wintry storm dumps snow over New England

(Reuters) - A large winter storm that dumped snow across the U.S. Midwest and East Coast swept into its final stage as it passed over New England on Sunday, with forecasters predicting a foot or more of snow in Maine. Roads and sidewalks around Boston left slushy by Saturday's snowfall were rapidly freezing over on Sunday morning as temperatures quickly fell into the 20s degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.66C). "Not only will the storm make roads and sidewalks slippery, raising the risk for slip-and-fall incidents and auto accidents, but it is likely to cause many flight delays and cancellations," Alex Sosnowski, an AccuWeather meteorologist, said in a statement on Sunday morning. Forty flights were canceled as of Sunday afternoon out of Logan International Airport in Boston, according to FlightAware.com. The snowstorm comes on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year and during one of the shortest holiday buying seasons, with only four weeks separating Thanksgiving and Christmas. The northern end of Maine could get close to 18 inches of snow before the storm moves on toward Canada's Atlantic Coast on Sunday night, with visibility fading, the National Weather Service said. The snow is likely to turn to freezing rain along New England's coast. Another 1 to 4 inches of snow could fall in western New York, and light snow showers were predicted around the Great Lakes region over the coming days. The snowstorm covered a huge swath of the United States on Saturday from Missouri to the East Coast, causing road accidents and the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights. The same region was slammed a week ago by another massive storm system that left parts of the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast shoveling out from a half foot of snow. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Jan Paschal)