Weather warning as blizzard bites

People advised to stay home after storm shuts schools, grounds flights

NEW YORK - Snow began blanketing the northeastern United States on Tuesday as a winter storm packing blizzard conditions rolled into the region, prompting public officials to ask people to stay home while airlines grounded flights and schools canceled classes.

The storm also caused the postponement of a meeting between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the White House saying the visit will go ahead on Friday.

The headquarters of the United Nations in New York was closed on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of eight states including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, with forecasts predicting about 60 centimeters of snow by early Wednesday and temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal for this time of year.

About 50 million people along the Eastern Seaboard were under storm or blizzard warnings and watches.

"If you must go out, do so for as limited time period as possible ... but the best thing to do is stay in," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

Aboveground subway service will be suspended at 4 am local time as transit officials in the New York metro area warned that more bus and train routes could be suspended throughout the day.

Airlines pre-emptively canceled more than 4,000 flights ahead of the storm, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. The airports with the most cancellations were Newark International Airport in New Jersey and Boston Logan International Airport.

American Airlines canceled all flights into New York while Delta Air Lines canceled 800 flights for New York, Boston and other northeast airports. United Airlines said it would have no operations at Newark or LaGuardia airports.

"We're keeping a close eye on things and depending on how things go, will plan to ramp back up Wednesday morning," United said in a statement.

Governors in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia declared a state of emergency.

"When this thing hits, it's going to hit hard and it's going to put a ton of snow on the ground in a hurry," Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said, urging people to consider working from home if they could.

The storm comes near the end of an unusually mild winter along much of the East Coast, with below-normal snowfalls in cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.

Boston was braced for up to 30 cm of snow, which forecasters warned would fall quickly during the storm's expected peak. Washington D.C., which often bogs down with even low levels of snow, was expecting 13 cm and twice that in outlying areas.