Hundreds of flights cancelled as winter storm wreaks havoc across northeast

Heavy snow from this week’s winter storm is wreaking havoc on the northeast’s major airports.

LaGuardia Airport is leading the pack with nearly 400 cancelled flights and more than 100 delays as of Tuesday morning, according to FlightAware.

Meanwhile, Newark Liberty International, Boston Logan International and John F Kennedy International are all seeing similar rates of cancellations as snow piles up across the region.

In total, some 1,100 flights into, out of or within the US have been cancelled as of early Tuesday, while another 1,500 have been delayed. That number will likely rise throughout the day as snow continues to accumulate.

John F Kennedy International Airport, pictured above, has already cancelled 184 flights as of Tuesday morning (AP)
John F Kennedy International Airport, pictured above, has already cancelled 184 flights as of Tuesday morning (AP)

Road travel isn’t looking much better, either. Throughout the northeast, local officials are warning against travel unless necessary.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is urging residents to stay home as the snowfall intensifies throughout Tuesday, while the National Weather Service (NWS) for Philadelphia asked residents to delay travel if possible.

To keep people off the roads, public schools in New York City and Boston were closed on Tuesday. Non-essential state employees across Massachusetts were also asked to stay home. A last-minute shift in the storm on Monday night caused much of the early snow to miss the Boston area, hitting southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island instead, according to forecasts from the NWS.

This nor’easter is already a record-setter, with meteorologists expecting it to bring the highest snowfall totals in more than two years in New York.

Several inches of snow have already hit New York state, pictured above (AFP via Getty Images)
Several inches of snow have already hit New York state, pictured above (AFP via Getty Images)

Up to eight inches of snow is expected to be dumped on the Big Apple, while parts of New Jersey and Connecticut could see up to fifteen inches. High winds are also possible throughout much of the region, with gusts up to 60 miles per hour forecasted off the Massachusetts coast.

Given these conditions, power outages are also likely to affect much of the northeast today.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 homes were already without power in Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us. In New Jersey, outages surpassed 10,000 and could rise before the day is over.