NYC suspends vaccinations as snowstorm that could dump 17-inches on city edges closer

The storm has been traveling across the country for days

The first major snowstorm of 2021 is heading towards the New York tri-state area, causing New York City to suspend vaccine appointments and schools to switch to remote learning for the duration of Monday, if not longer.

"Make alternative plans for Monday right now," New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday.

Vaccine appointments in the city would be rescheduled, and governor Andrew Cuomo is considering whether to keep state-run vaccine sites open during the storm.

At its most intense, the storm could deliver 1 to 3 inches of snow per hour to New York City.

Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey, both in the path of this “nor’easter” storm, canceled vaccination clinics as well, given expected snowfalls of nearly one-and-a-half feet and a coastal flood watch.  

The worst of the weather, which could drop anywhere between 12 and 18 inches of snow across the East Coast and Midwest, is expected on Monday. It could impact more than 100 million people in cities from Chicago to Washington, DC.

Utility companies like Con Edison and PSE&G were reportedly preparing to respond to any outages ahead of the snowfall.

The storm is part of the same weather system that dumped nearly 40 inches of rain on California over the last week. On its path across the country, it also hit Chicago with 7 inches of snow, causing hundreds of flights to be delayed. In Wisconsin, some counties got more than 15 inches. 

"That's more snow than we've seen in a decade," Chris Stumpf, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The last time parts of southern Wisconsin had 15-inch snow depth was in 2011.

Washington, DC and parts of Virginia were reporting snow on Sunday. 

Heavy snow in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut could cause blizzard-like conditions and winds up to 50 mph, strong enough to blow down tree branches. 

Warm pockets of the storm have also spawned showers and thunderstorms across the central and southeastern US throughout Sunday.