A storm likened to a freight train — powerful and large but maybe not as lumbering — was bringing with it fat snowflakes at a speedy pace on Sunday, just days after another storm left two or more feet of snow.
The National Weather Service said “a band of heavy snow” with snowfall rates of one to two inches an hour was over the New York metro area. “Snowfall rates should increase for other areas to the east into the late morning and early afternoon,” it said on Twitter.
So far, Newark Liberty International Airport reported 81 flights being canceled on Sunday while Kennedy and La Guardia Airports were advising travelers to check their flight status before heading out.
Winter storm warnings and weather advisories were posted for parts of Connecticut, northeastern New Jersey, New York City and Long Island, the National Weather Service said. The storm was expected to make for treacherous travel on Sunday, forecasters said.
“It might be fast moving, but don’t take it lightly,” warned Steven DiMartino, a meteorologist and owner of NY NJ PA Weather in Freehold, N.J. “Stay off the roads and let those guys do their jobs,” he added. “Stay home and have a nice cup of coffee.”
The storm prompted the suspension and postponements of Covid-19 vaccinations at several vaccination centers in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office said.
“This one’s like a freight train,” Mr. DiMartino said. “It comes in and blasts us with snow before it leaves.”
While most areas can expect accumulations of four to eight inches, some isolated spots in the Philadelphia-New York-Boston corridor could see as much as 10 inches, though Mr. DiMartino said it was difficult to say precisely where.
By late afternoon or early evening on Sunday, the snow should end, said Matthew Wunsch, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Upton, N.Y.
“So the entire event essentially takes place over the course of, like, 12 hours, whereas the system that we just had kind of lingered around the area for several days,” he said.
A storm last week slathered New York City in 17.2 inches of snow. It was the biggest snowstorm since a record-setting blizzard in 2016, the National Weather Service said. Other areas, including parts of New Jersey, got 30 inches or more of snow.
Some of the coldest weather of the season — with temperatures in the single digits or below zero — will follow hard on the heels of the storm. On the East Coast, temperatures will drop into the single digits after the storm, causing considerable icing.
“It’s going to be a mess on Monday morning,” Mr. DiMartino said.
And if that’s not enough of a reminder of winter, forecasters said there could be more unsettled stormy weather to come this week.
Mr. DiMartino said clashing systems could mean an unsettled spell of weather. Snow could come again on Tuesday and Thursday into Friday as an arctic air mass from the north pushes south and the influences of La Niña push north, he said.
Ben Gelber, a meteorologist with NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio, said the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest could see temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees below zero from the Dakotas to Wisconsin and northern Iowa. “Subzero morning readings will be felt in Chicago by midweek,” he said.
For fans of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog that humans ceremonially use as a prognosticator of what’s still to come this season, all of this comes as no surprise: On Tuesday, he predicted six more weeks of winter.
Allyson Waller contributed reporting.