OVER A DOZEN flights due to operate between Ireland and the US have been cancelled as a huge snowstorm hits the east coast of the US.

Tens of millions of Americans from the US capital, Washington, to the northern state of Maine have prepared for up to 60 centimeters of snow forecast in some areas.

New York has ordered drivers off the road and shut down schools on Monday as it prepares for the storm, which has been unofficially dubbed Storm Hernando.

A total of 13 Ireland-US flights have been cancelled by airlines so far, including seven from Dublin and six to Dublin.

Dublin airport said that the outbound flights affected include two from Dublin to John F Kennedy International airport in New York, three to Boston and two to Newark.

The inbound flights affected include two from John F Kennedy International airport in New York to Dublin, two from Boston and two from Newark.

Passenger Update - Monday 23rd

Due to adverse weather (Storm Hernando) on the east coast of the US, airlines have cancelled a number of flights due to operate to/from Dublin Airport on Monday.

A total of 13 flights have been cancelled by airlines so far, including 7 outbound… pic.twitter.com/8FZDIlSGAd

— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) February 22, 2026

The airport advised passengers due to fly to contact the airline they are travelling with for the latest updates. 

Light snow and “freezing fog” with lows of 30F (-1C) were recorded in New York in the early hours of Monday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on its website.

NWS also predicted blizzard conditions would “quickly materialise” from Maryland up to southeastern New England, making travel “extremely treacherous.”

Snow could fall at a rate of two to three inches per hour at the peak of the storm, with nearly 54 million people in its path, it said.

Early Monday morning, the storm had already begun to hit New York, slashing visibility to the extent that the skyscrapers of Wall Street were barely visible from the adjacent borough of Brooklyn.

Power outages are likely due to heavy snow and strong wind gusts, forecasters said. Just after 01:39 am local time (06.39 GMT) on Monday, nearly 80,000 customers were without power in the state of New Jersey, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.

Meanwhile, more than 5,000 flights have been cancelled, data from the tracker FlightAware showed early Monday.

In New York, which has more than eight million residents, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said streets, highways and bridges would be shut down from 9:00 pm Sunday until noon Monday.

“New York City has not faced a storm of this scale in the last decade,” he said, explaining the state of emergency. “We are asking New Yorkers to avoid all non-essential travel.”

The ban will not apply to essential workers or New Yorkers needing to travel due to emergencies.

The storm comes just weeks after the region recovered from another devastating winter weather system that was linked to more than 100 deaths.

With additional reporting from AFP.