DC bulls-eye! Federal government to close early and 5,000 flights cancelled as Winter Storm Jonas closes in with more than 28 inches of snow and 85 million people in its path
The East Coast of the United States is bracing for Winter Storm Jonas, expected to hit Washington, DC Friday
Experts say the nation’s capital could be hit with some 29 inches of snow – beating the record 28 inches set in 1922
As of Friday morning, 85 million people were under blizzard or winter storm warnings
Federal government offices in the DC-area will be closing at noon on Friday
Twelve to 18 inches of snow was predicted for Philadelphia and eight to 12 inches was expected in New York
More than 5,000 flights have already been cancelled for Friday and Saturday
Snow is already falling in the southeast, where Arkansas saw more than six inches overnight
On Thursday, icy conditions caused accidents that killed two drivers in North Carolina and one in Tennessee. A truck with a snowplow killed a pedestrian in Maryland
ASHLEY COLLMAN
DAILYMAIL.COM
22 January 2016
A massive blizzard is charging toward the East Coast on Friday, one that the National Weather Service said could rank near the top 10 to ever hit the region.
With more than two feet of snow predicted for Washington alone, schools were closed, flights were canceled and a state of emergency was declared across a vast area.
The National Weather Service says the nation’s capital could get as much as 29 inches of snow by the time the storm ends Sunday, possibly breaking the record set during the January 1922 Knickerbocker blizzard, when 28 inches covered DC.
That blizzard was named after the tragedy at the Crandall’s Knickerbocker Theater where 98 people were killed and 133 injured when the roof collapsed under the weight of the snow.
NWS meteorologist Paul Kocin compared this weekend’s storm to ‘Snowmageddon,’ the first of two storms that ‘wiped out’ Washington in 2010 and dumped up to 30 inches of snow, but said the weekend timing and the days of warning could help limit deaths and damage.
‘It does have the potential to be an extremely dangerous storm that can affect more than 50 million people,’ Louis Uccellini, director of the weather service, said at its Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
As of Friday morning, some 85 million people across the Eastern U.S. were under blizzard of winter storm warnings.
He said all the elements have come together to create a blizzard with brutally high winds, dangerous inland flooding, white-out conditions and even the possibility of thunder snow, when lightning strikes through a snowstorm.
The snowfall, expected to continue from late Friday into Sunday, could easily cause more than $1billion in damage and paralyze the eastern third of the nation, Uccellini said.
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