More than 500,000 without power as blizzard hits US Northeast

Blizzard batters US Northeast leaving half a million without power and cancelling thousands of flights.

A powerful winter storm has swept across the northeastern United States, leaving more than half a million customers without electricity and forcing thousands of flight cancellations as heavy snow and strong winds hit major cities.

Data from PowerOutage.us showed 511,364 outages across the country by 8:30am ET on Monday. The largest numbers were reported in several northeastern states, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, as the blizzard intensified.

Reports cited by iHeart said the outages were part of widespread disruption caused by the storm system, while California was also dealing with more than 21,000 outages linked to a separate winter storm.

Air travel was also severely affected. According to FlightAware, at least 5,382 flights within, into or out of the United States had been cancelled and hundreds more delayed by the same time Monday morning.

The storm has brought significant snowfall to major population centres. More than a foot of snow had already fallen in New York City early on Monday, prompting the city’s first blizzard warning in nine years.

Warnings were also issued across several parts of the region, including areas around Boston and along coastal communities such as Long Island.

Forecasters warned of dangerous conditions as powerful winds accompany the snowfall. The severe weather is likely to continue affecting travel and visibility through much of the day.

Meteorologists say much of the Northeast could see between one and two feet of snow before the storm begins to ease later on Monday, although strong winds may continue even after snowfall starts to reduce.