For at least the fifth time this season, a major snowstorm crawled up the eastern seaboard and swept across the Northeast early Thursday, dumping fresh snow on top of streets already covered in icy slush and disrupting the commutes of millions of people.

The powerful storm, appearing as a giant white smudge over the Northeast on radar maps, arrived in two parts, coating the region with rain and several inches of snow early Wednesday and then dumping up to an additional foot of snow in some places overnight Thursday.

In New York City, the wintry one-two punch caused all non-emergency city government offices to close on Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced through Twitter. The Department of Education said that all public schools across the five boroughs would be closed for the day.

Across the New York region, hundreds of flights were canceled, and the Port Authority later closed Newark, Teterboro, and John F. Kennedy Airports. The Metropolitan Transit Authority suspended all of its bus services across New York City and Long Island early Thursday. The Long Island Rail Road said it would operate a reduced weekday morning schedule, while the Metro-North Railroad said its Harlem and Hudson lines would run on a Saturday schedule. The Nor’easter created a fresh sense of snow fatigue in a region that has been unusually battered by storms. Trying to prevent a repeat of the problems associated with a late December blizzard, when streets went unplowed for days, New York City sent out more than 2,000 salt spreaders, snow plows and other vehicles to clear the streets.

Even before the storm started walloping the region overnight, the National Weather Service had estimated that more than 37 inches of snow — almost double the winter average — had fallen in Central Park this winter. The overnight storms broke January snowfall records for Central Park, Newark, LaGuardia Airport, Bridgeport and Islip, the Weather Service said Thursday morning.

Heavy overnight snowfalls included Central Park with 15 inches; East Rutherford, N.J., with 15.5 inches; and West Norwalk, Conn., with 17 inches, the Weather Service said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Bloomberg declared a weather emergency. The weather declaration wasn’t the only one that warned of another midwinter mess. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through 6 a.m. Thursday for the city, Long Island and parts of northeastern New Jersey. The Weather Service also issued a coastal flood advisory through 5 a.m., warning residents along the coasts in parts of Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island that streets and roadways could experience minor flooding.

New Jersey Transit said early Thursday that it had suspended its service systemwide except for selected routes to and from Atlantic City. Amtrak, meanwhile, said it would try to maintain normal service between Boston and New York but warned customers to expect delays.

The snow hit some regions harder than others. In Washington, D.C., downed power lines left hundreds of thousands of customers without power on Wednesday, and officials were warning residents to keep their cars off the snow-slicked roads. The weather even played havoc with President Barack Obama’s schedule: After returning to Washington from a quick trip to Wisconsin on Wednesday, Mr. Obama’s motorcade spent an hour in rush hour traffic. He was supposed to return to the White House by helicopter, the Associated Press reported, but Marine one was grounded because of the weather.

Back in New York, Mr. Bloomberg’s weather-emergency declaration — which is not the same as a snow emergency — meant that alternate-side parking and parking-meter payments were being suspended immediately. So were garbage pickups, at least “until further notice,” according to the declaration.

The storm posed another challenge for the mayor, who came under withering criticism for the city’s handling of a blizzard that paralyzed much of the city after Christmas, with streets left uncleared of snow for days.

(Source: NY Times)