Strong Winter Storm Lashes Northeast

A powerful storm has brought a wintry mix into the tri-state area, making post-holiday travel treacherous and commuting complicated for people going back to work after Christmas.

The heaviest snow in the area fell in Orange and Westchester counties. Tuxedo Park had 5 inches of snow by Wednesday night and Mount Kisco had 3 inches. 

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In northern New Jersey, snow covered communities from Passaic County north into Sussex. Highland got 6 inches of snow, Butler got 3.5 inches and Oakland saw 3.3 inches. Central and southern New Jersey saw heavy rain. 

For Kathy Lane of Pompton Plains, "the snow, the ice, the rain" was most worrisome. "The flooding, we'll deal with later. And God willing, we won't have any of it," she said.

But meteorologists say minor river and stream flooding could be a problem by the morning: snow changed over to rain through the evening as warm air got pulled into the storm, with the last batch of rain moving through the city late Wednesday night. Heavy rain pummeled the city through Long Island, and from Asbury Park in New Jersey toward Darien in Connecticut.

Additionally, Sandy-weary residents on coastal Long Island were advised to take additional precautions to prevent flooding in their already storm-ravaged homes because of the possibility of high tide flooding. Another round of high tide flooding is expected to affect parts of Queens and the Jersey shore in the morning, with swells of 6.5 to 8 feet possible in areas like Sandy Hook and Freeport.

Some parts may say as much as 1 to 3 inches of rain.

In the meantime, winds are picking up, with gusts were expected to go as high as 60 mph overnight. Wind chills have already plunged into the teens in some spots north and west of the tri-state. 

There were scattered power outages throughout the area: by late night Wednesday, Jersey Central Power & Light reported 10,843 outages; Long Island Power Authority reported 3,134 outages; PSE&G reported 3,000 outages; and Consolidated Edison reported 2,128 outages. 

Area airports saw hundreds of delays and cancellations. A pair of newlyweds were spending the night at Kennedy Airport until their next available flight to Chicago at 6 a.m. Thursday.
 
"We're stuck here for the next eight hours," said Amanda Avila. 

The wintry mix is expected to taper off Thursday amid a high of 42 degrees before temperatures drop overnight, making for a breezy, cool Friday.

Get the latest weather forecasts and info from NBC 4 New York.
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