14 DAY TRIAL // This past December 25, the southern regions of the US were hit by a major windstorm which brought forth strong winds, pouring rains and significant amounts of snow.
Besides forcing several airline companies to cancel all flights and causing road traffic to come to a standstill, the storm killed six people, who died either as a result of weather-related crashes, or because of falling trees.
As was to be expected, the storm also caused power outages and significant structural damages.
According to AccuWeather, northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania, north Maine and several communities found in their proximity are now covered by more than a foot of snow.
On the other hand, the country's National Weather Service warned that, judging by how the situation presented itself, upstate New York and New England might find themselves buried under more than one foot of snow either on Thursday night, or on Friday morning at the latest.
As well as this, snow accumulations in central Maine could hit a total of two feet.
In response to this, governor Cuomo activated the State Emergency Operations Center, hoping to better monitor the storm and see to it that New York's residents were kept out of harm's way.
“Winter weather has arrived for many parts of the state, so as a precaution we have opened the emergency operation center to coordinate response efforts using all state and local resources,” stated Governor Cuomo.
Furthermore, “I also urge New Yorkers to closely watch local news reports for weather updates and adjust their travel plans accordingly. All non-essential travel should be avoided during and directly after the storm since roads will be icy with blizzard conditions in some places.”
As meteorologists explain, the storm is made all the more dangerous by the heavy winds which are accompanying the snowfall and the rain downpours, meaning that these winds both force the rain to mix with the snow, thus leading to the formation of a so-called wintry mix, and keep the snow from settling.