As a winter storm that already blanketed Chicago in snow makes its way towards the East Coast, airports throughout the region are announcing flight cancellations and delays.
According to USA Today, citing information provided by FlightStats, airlines had preemptively canceled more than 1,300 flights by 3 a.m. this morning in anticipation of the oncoming snow and strong wind. By 11:10 a.m. ET, the number of flights canceled across the USA had ballooned to more than 1,900.
With that, more than 4,100 cancellations have now been reported nationwide since the storm first began affecting flights Monday.
Little snow had fallen as of 8 a.m. ET in Washington, but the city's Dulles and Reagan National Airports each had nearly 600 flight cancellations by sunrise. By 11:10 a.m., the totals surpassed 600 cancellations at each of the airports, even though no snow was on the ground throughout much of downtown Washington.
More than 175 flights had been canceled at Baltimore/Washington International Airport as of 11:10 a.m. ET.
Cancellations also are mounting at the region's delay-prone airports of New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Philadelphia, where wind and reduced visibility are the main problems for fliers. Cancellation totals at those airports pale in comparison with those at their D.C. counterparts, still, the four airports have more than 550 cancellations combined as of 11:10 a.m. ET.