A Flurry of Storm Trouble Is Forecast

NEW YORK â€”  A snowstorm moving Friday from Canada into the Great Lakes drew weather warnings from North Dakota to New Jersey and the Long Island Sound, with some areas bracing for a foot of snow or more.

New Jersey and areas around New York City expected as much as 15 inches of snow this weekend. Several areas to the west expected less snow, but some, such as southwestern Ohio, already had several inches on the ground from earlier storms.

At the Hidden Valley Resort in Vernon, N.J., there was apprehension, despite the prospect of good skiing conditions.

“It’s great for morale and gets a lot of people interested in skiing,� said general manager John Shema, “but a snowfall like that over the weekend hurts our cash registers because people aren’t getting in their cars and coming out here.�

Snowfall in Minneapolis, expected to total as much as 8 inches, started getting heavy as rush hour hit Friday, stalling traffic. Just a single runway of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was open by 6 p.m., and more than 200 flights were canceled.

Bitter cold already closed schools Friday in central New York and hampered road-clearing efforts. Early morning temperatures dipped as low as minus 15 in Ithaca, and Syracuse’s low of 11 below zero beat the date’s previous record of 8 below, set in 1984.

“It actually hurts -- I mean, breathing actually hurts,� Syracuse schools spokesman Neil Driscoll said. “It’s such a drastic change to just step outside with a minus-15-degree actual temperature and a windchill that ranges somewhere from 20 to 30 below.�

Temperatures were in the teens in New York City, but the wind made it feel like it was 4 below zero. A law keeps horses from drawing carriages in Central Park when it gets that cold, but many people who had no such excuse coped with going to work with help from vendor Bashir Babury’s coffee.

“Nobody asked for bagels or doughnuts; they’re frozen,� Babury said from his cart on West 33rd Street.

The coming storm was expected to bring strong wind to areas around the city along with heavy snow, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a blizzard warning along the Long Island Sound.

Milwaukee and other cities along Lake Michigan could get about a foot of snow. Chicago was expecting as much as 10 inches by today, along with winds of about 25 mph, and as much as 8 inches of snow were expected in northern Ohio.