Travel nightmare unfolds at major East Coast airports as powerful storm unleashes vicious winds, rain

NEW YORK – Millions of people across much of the East Coast are under High Wind Alerts, as the final leg of a coast-to-coast storm pounded the entire Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida early Friday, threatening to disrupt the busy holiday travel rush.

Airports, such as LaGuardia and Teterboro, are already experiencing ground delays between 60 and 90 minutes due to strong winds.

While temperatures were in the 50s early Friday, a powerful cold front will quickly move into the Northeast as the storm system departs, sending temperatures plummeting into the teens in some places by dinnertime.

A burst of rain soaked the East Coast early Friday, with showers forecast to linger into the late morning in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast before departing.

There was even enough heat across parts of the Southeast that Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued over the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area Friday morning.

The rain could lead to some isolated flash flooding across northern New England due to extra water runoff from snow-covered grounds.

NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center has issued a Level 1 out of 4 flash flood risk for an area covering northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine through Friday.

The parent area of low pressure driving the coast-to-coast storm will remain well within Canada, keeping the coldest air and snow locked to the north. However, lake-enhanced snow showers are expected later Friday for the lake-effect snow regions off Lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as the interior Northeast.

Powerful wind gusts to threaten East Coast holiday travel

Powerful wind gusts have been the hallmark of this coast-to-coast storm, after causing hundreds of thousands to lose power across the Pacific Northwest and Rockies earlier this week.

These strong wind gusts will reach the East Coast Friday and could cause air travel disruptions across some of the country’s busiest airports during what is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Winds are forecast to increase as Friday progresses. The National Weather Service has issued Wind Alerts across the Northeast, as well as across the Appalachians into North Carolina.

Wind gusts up to 60 mph are possible across the New York City metro area through Saturday morning.

This latest storm bears out the long-range outlook from NOAA last month that forecast an active start to meteorological winter, due in part to the La Niña climate pattern.

Friday evening flash freeze for Northeast

A cold front will move in quickly behind the departing storm system and temperatures will begin to drop beginning Friday afternoon. 

According to the FOX Forecast Center, the rapid temperature drop may cause leftover rain to freeze, leading to black ice and dangerous driving conditions Friday evening and overnight.

Temperatures could reach the teens and 20s by Friday night, with low temperatures Saturday morning in the 20s and 30s across the region.

Freezing conditions are expected to depart quickly, beginning Saturday afternoon.