Winter storms battering Northeast, Midwest

Two separate winter storms battering the East Coast and the Midwest snarled traffic on Monday and threatened to be a nuisance for voters heading to the polls for Tuesday's New Hampshire primary election.

The East Coast storm dumped heavy snow on much of New England and lashed coastal areas from the Mid-Atlantic to Maine with fierce winds and pounding surf.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The area could get a foot of snow by the time the storm was over, along with wind gusts of up to 65 mph.

One of the highest snowfall totals as of late Monday was the 9 inches recorded in Yarmouthport, Mass. on Cape Cod, the weather service reported.

Photos on social media showed flooding on Nantucket Island and along the east coast of Massachusetts.

A bus accident was also reported on snowy I-95 in Connecticut, which has shut down the interstate near Madison, according to local police. About 30-40 people were rushed to a local hospital, of which 6 were in critical condition, according to a tweet from Nicole Nalepa, a reporter with WFSB-TV in Hartford.

Though a winter storm advisory covered the entire state of New Hampshire on Monday, forecasters predicted the bulk of the snow would end early or midday Tuesday, just in time for the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

"It looks like New Hampshire will be in between two winter storms on Tuesday with scattered flurries," AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said.

None of the campaigns reported any special snow plans or contingencies due to the storm, but most of the campaigns make arrangements to ferry voters to the polls in any case, whether there’s snow or no snow.

In Boston, about 330 flights – or a third of the entire day’s schedule – had been grounded as of 2 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.

Late Sunday, this same storm, traveling off the Southeast coast, tossed around the Anthem of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. The storm produced hurricane-force winds that prompted the ship's captain to confine cruise ship passengers to their cabins.

Giant Royal Caribbean ship damaged in 'extreme' storm will return to port

Coastal Delaware, New Jersey and Massachusetts contended with coastal flooding and beach erosion that struck the same areas slammed by a blizzard just over two weeks ago.

Monday: Snow cancels flights in NYC, New England

In the Midwest, a separate storm brought strong winds and blizzard conditions to portions of Iowa and Minnesota, the National Weather Service said. Winds gusting over 60 mph at times caused whiteout conditions.

Numerous accidents were reported in both states. Though snowfall totals were not high, howling winds of up to 40-50 mph blew around the snow, leading to the whiteouts.

Northern Minnesota braced for ferocious cold on Tuesday, as wind chills were forecast to dip to 20 to 30 degrees below zero in International Falls.

Forecasters expect the Midwest storm to slide into the Ohio Valley, Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic later Monday and into Tuesday. Snow from the storm is forecast for Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Buffalo on Tuesday.

About 2 inches is expected in Washington while Baltimore and Philadelphia could see up to 5-10 inches, the weather service predicted.

Meanwhile, in southern California, howling Santa Ana winds had the potential to whip up wildfires on Monday, the National Weather Service warned. Temperatures were very warm on Monday in southern California, with readings near 90 degrees in and around Los Angeles and San Diego.

Contributing: David Jackson, USA TODAY, in New Hampshire.