Snow hits New York before Halloween for the fourth time since the Civil War as East Coast hunkers down for a VERY chilling weekend

Earliest New York City one-inch snowfall predicted since the Civil War
Snowstorms already hitting Massachusetts and New England
10,000 people without power in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia
Parts of Connecticut could get a foot of snow this weekend
Some areas expecting OVER 13 inches!
Since record keeping began NYC has never had an inch of snow in October

New York has today been hit by snowfall before Halloween for only the fourth time since the Civil War. The North East is bracing for a chilling weekend as 60 million people are expected to experience a rare October snowstorm, which will unleash heavy, wet snow and wind. New England has already been struck by a very early snowfall and 10,000 residents in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia were today without power after snow, according to AccuWeather.com.This weekend looks set to see huge amounts of sleet and snow covering the North East, invariably causing power outages and travel chaos. Some areas bracing for up to a foot of snow.

Read more about the October blizzard here.

And more from Accuweather:

A foot of heavy wet, back-breaking snow will plaster areas north and west of I-95 Saturday, causing massive power outages, downed trees and travel nightmares. The storm will hit hard and fast, traveling from southwest to northeast over the mid-Atlantic and New England in less than 24 hours. In most of the mid-Atlantic the storm began as rain, but a change to snow will progress throughout the day. The heaviest snow from the storm will stretch from along the Virginia/West Virginia border through a large swath of central and eastern Pennsylvania to southeastern New York state, northwestern New Jersey, northern Connecticut, central and western Massachusetts to southern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine.
Cities and towns that are likely to receive the heaviest snowfall include: Torrington, Conn., Hagerstown, Md., Springfield, Mass., Nashua, N.H., Netcong, N.J., Kingston, N.Y., Honesdale, Pa., Winchester, Va., Brattleboro, Vt. and Martinsburg, W.Va. In these areas and others over the interior Northeast, the snow will come down hard enough to accumulate on the roads making for slippery driving. The worst conditions will be in the hilly areas and the mountains, where slightly lower temperatures are in store. Thousands of trees could come down, and over a million people could be without power. Some rural roads could be blocked for days by fallen trees. Driving or walking through wooded areas during and immediately following the storm could be dangerous.