Market News
Snow Storm Disrupts Holiday Travel at New York City Airports
(Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of flights have been canceled at New York’s major airports as a significant winter storm descends on the city and neighboring regions.
New York City is in line to get 5 to 9 inches (13 to 23 cm) of snow between 4 p.m. Friday to 1 p.m. Saturday, local time, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 1,000 flights across the US had been canceled as of 10 a.m. New York time on Friday, according to the FlightAware website. Roughly half of those were clustered around flights coming into or leaving New York City’s three major airports – LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark. Detroit and Boston airports also saw cancellations and delays.
New York City issued a travel advisory for the duration of the storm as cold temperatures limit snowmelt, increasing the risk of slippery and hazardous road conditions.
A winter storm warning stretched from NYC to northeast New Jersey and into the Lower Hudson Valley and parts of Long Island and Connecticut, according to the National Weather Service. Some areas could see snowfall top 10 inches in the heaviest bands, the agency said.
“Road conditions will be treacherous for those traveling back from the holiday,” the weather service said.
While winter weather can lead to soaring demand for electricity — crimping power supplies — so far, grids aren’t showing signs of stress. Still, the colder temperatures are helping to lift prices for US natural gas, used as a fuel for home heating. Futures rose as much as 3.3% on Friday.
Other parts of the country are also seeing weather-related travel disruptions.
A combination of freezing rain, sleet and snow will create hazardous travel conditions from the Great Lakes into New England and the mid-Atlantic through Saturday morning, according to the weather service.
The upper Midwest may see “a swath of snow and ice blossoming” Friday morning before a clipper system bumping up against a high pressure system in eastern Canada feeds cold air south over the border, bringing precipitation.
Later this weekend, a potentially stronger cold front will move across the Northeast, including the Washington area, which could lead to blustery conditions during the last few days of the year. Parts of western Pennsylvania is under threat of an ice storm, which could cause power outages and make travel hazardous.
(Updates with latest forecasts, travel delays starting from the third paragraph.)
