New York City has been blanketed with a festive dusting of snow after Storm Gail hit much of the United States east coast with the worst weather in a decade.

Times Square, Central Park and the Rockefeller Center’s famed Christmas tree were all covered by up to six-and-a-half inches of the white stuff as Gail arrived on Wednesday evening. Forecasters say the Big Apple could ultimately see twelve inches of snow by the time it stops falling on Thursday afternoon.

Parts of Pennsylvania are set to see two feet of snow, with the US National Weather Service warning of ‘very dangerous, if not impossible travel conditions and isolated power outages.’

Airlines have already canceled 1,300 flights in response to the snow, with rail operator Amtrak also operating a modified schedule because of the blizzards.

Three people are known to have died in crashes caused by the bad weather. Brannagan Locklear, 19, was killed in Virginia, with two other unnamed victims killed in a pile-up along Interstate 80 in Clinton County, Pennsylvania.

Storm Gail has seen weather warnings issued from Georgia all the way up to southern Maine, with 60 million Americans urged to take extra precautions.

A 20 car pile-up also stopped traffic on Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Parkway on Wednesday evening.

But some hardy New Yorkers were determined not to let the bad weather stop their socializing, and were seen enjoying food and drinks outside a snow-covered restaurant in the city’s East Village.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo banned indoor dining from Monday to try and tackle rising Covid cases in the city.

Outdoor dining was also temporarily banned owing to safety fears because of the snow storm, but that was later lifted amid protests from hard-hit restaurateurs fearing for their businesses.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected]

For more stories like this, check our news page

Source: Read Full Article