Still more snow and ice snarling airline traffic for Northeast

[March 02, 2015]  (Reuters) - Snow and ice spread across the northeastern United States again on Sunday and into early Monday, causing airline flight disruptions at several major airports as February's onslaught of bitter winter weather dragged into the first days of March.

Although less intense than the harshest winter storms of the past month, snow fell from the nation's capital to New England, with southern sections of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts hardest hit, according to the National Weather Service.

A winter storm warning was posted for those areas.

Three to six inches of snow was expected to accumulate around Cape Cod and along the south coast of Massachusetts, with up to 8 inches in some spots, before tapering off or changing to freezing rain early on Monday, said meteorologist Frank Nocera of the Boston-area Weather Service office.

Boston, which posted its coldest February on record last month and its second-snowiest ever, was likely to end up with 2 to 4 inches of new snow on Monday, on top of the 102.3 inches recorded in the city this season, Nocera said.

He said Boston was unlikely to surpass its all-time record winter snowfall of 107.6 inches, set in 1995-96, until another expected winter storm hit on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Winter weather advisories were posted across much of New England, eastern New York and Pennsylvania and south into the mid-Atlantic region.

The snow and freezing rain wreaked havoc on airline traffic into and out of several airports. John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia international airports in New York both reported weather-related disruptions of flight activity on Sunday afternoon.

The FlightAware.com website, which tracks commercial aviation nationwide, reported more than 1,700 canceled flights on Sunday at the eight major airports serving the Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston metropolitan areas.

At least 300 more flights in and out of those airports were listed as canceled for Monday.

New York City emergency management officials issued a travel advisory over the weekend warning commuters to expect dangerously icy road conditions for the morning rush hour on Monday.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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