Blizzard starts dumping snow on parts of US

A massive blizzard began dumping snow on the southern and eastern U.S. on Friday, with mass flight cancelations, five states declaring states of emergency and more than two feet predicted for Washington alone.

The National Weather Service said the winter storm could rank near the top 10 to ever hit the region. NWS meteorologist Paul Kocin compared it to “Snowmageddon”, the first of two storms that “wiped out” Washington in 2010, but he said the weekend timing 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,” said Louis Uccellini, director of the weather service. The snowfall, expected to continue from late Friday into Sunday, could easily cause more than $1 billion in damage and paralyse the eastern third of the nation, he said.

Mr. Uccellini 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.

Snowfall as heavy as 1-3 inches an hour could continue for 24 hours, Mr. Kocin said. In addition to Washington, 12-18 inches of snow was predicted for Philadelphia and 8-12 inches for New York. A state of emergency was declared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia and parts of other states. Blizzard warnings were in effect along the storm’s path.