Bomb cyclone could develop in Northeast as winter storm blankets much of nation during peak holiday travel

The National Weather Service warns a “major winter storm” will hinder holiday travel in two-thirds of the country this weekend.

The New York City area is expected to get mostly rain Thursday and Friday, followed by plummeting temperatures that could ice up roads and bridges, meteorologists told the Daily News on Wednesday.

Wind gusts of up to 55 mph are expected to hit the Big Apple, too.

Forecasters were warning of blizzards in the Midwest and drenching rain to the East that would flash freeze virtually overnight at the end of the week. Flights are likely to be canceled, and roadways will be hazardous amid the pelting precipitation and driving winds, meteorologists said.

The size, scope, wildly fluctuating temperatures and varying types of precipitation happening simultaneously make the storm unusual, even for winter.

“The National Weather Service has a large area across the country which has wind-chill warnings or wind-chill watches,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the agency in College Park, Md. “The system is so large and so encompassing in the U.S., there’s actually about 190 million people currently under some type of winter weather advisory.”

Those conditions mean the storm will cause “widespread travel delays coast-to-coast, particularly in the Northeast here,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alyson Hoegg told The News.

“As rain moves in during the day [Thursday], those delays will start to increase in all the main hubs. We expect widespread travel issues up and down the East Coast and at least through the midsection of the country.”

That had already started on Tuesday, when at least 192 flights were canceled.

Boston will be an exception, since it will probably remain dry enough for planes to get in and out, Hoegg said. But hubs like Detroit and Chicago are “definitely a concern,” she added, with snow predicted in Chicago and rain turning to snow in Detroit.

Rain and winds of up to 55 mph are the main concern for Friday in the Northeast, with a cold front expected to freeze any water still left on roads. Up to 2 inches of rain will fall, with up to 3 inches in some areas. The heaviest rainfall is expected Thursday night and into Friday morning.

“There is a potential for a flash freeze, especially on elevated surfaces such as bridges,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey. “Not only will that lead to the hazardous travel conditions, but the wind chills will also be a concern.”

Those wind chills could approach 70 degrees below zero in the northernmost regions of the U.S.. In the Northeast, including the New York City area, temperatures will drop from the 40s to well below freezing in just a few hours, and “if the winds can’t dry the roads off, we could end up with flash freeze happening on roads, and slick spots developing,” Hoegg said.

Salting the roads beforehand won’t do much good, because the rain will wash the grains away as soon as they’re put down, she noted.

Saturday afternoon should be OK for driving in much of the Northeast, Ramsey said, depending on the effects of the freeze and how quickly that develops.

The flash freeze also threatens to cause power outages, leaving people without heat in sub-freezing temperatures, Hoegg noted. In southern parts of the U.S. such as Texas, pipes could burst, since they are not insulated.

Holiday travel could play a role in both those scenarios as well.

“If people aren’t home, they might not know that something has happened for a couple of days,” Hoegg said.

With News Wire Services