A New York City Transit worker clears snow from a sidewalk for the morning commute outside a subway station during a snow storm in Brooklyn, New York City, on Friday. (Brendan McDermid, Reuters)
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WASHINGTON — Floods hit parts of the Northwestern United States on Friday after heavy rains, while a winter storm brought more than a half a foot in snow in the eastern parts of the country, closing schools, offices and busy roads.
Here in Utah, however, residents in Salt Lake City experienced record-tying temperatures.
In fact, according to the National Weather Service, the daily record high temperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit, previously set in 1956, was tied Friday.
🌡️Warmer in Salt Lake City than Houston? Los Angeles? For today anyway, this is the case. Temperatures are well above normal and currently tied for record warmth for the day. Temperatures fall back to seasonal values tomorrow. #UTwxpic.twitter.com/MFXsTrxBRj
— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) January 7, 2022
Meanwhile, flood and gale warnings are in place across many coastal areas in the Pacific Northwest, whilst winter storm warnings remained for eastern parts of Maine, according to the National Weather Service.
“One final storm system will move across the Northwest today with heavy coastal rain and heavy mountain snow,” it said.
Several alerts were affecting a number of major roads in Washington state, with “hazardous water conditions” closing a number of sections, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.
Some properties, roads and fields were seen deep in water in images and videos posted on social media and by local news outlets.
Around 2,600 flights to, from and within the United States were canceled on Friday, according to Flightaware.com, with COVID-19 also affecting airlines.
More than 50,000 customers along the West Coast are currently without power whilst Virginia is the worst-hit state in east, data from poweroutage.us showed.
Earlier, a storm in the east left some parts of Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland under 6 to 8 inches of snow with coastal New England hardest hit as some towns saw more than a foot of snow on Thursday and into Friday.
Federal government offices in Washington were closed, and dozens of school districts across the eastern half of the country canceled classes due to the snow and bitter cold.
The storm was the second this week to slam into the eastern United States. On Monday, the region was blanketed by up to a foot of snow, stranding thousands of people for up to 27 hours when nearly 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in northern Virginia became impassable.
Contributing: Tyler Clifford, Arianne Brown
