A powerful winter storm covered most of the Northeast on Friday and caused flight delays in several major airports as well as chaos during the morning commute.

The storm brought with it everything from freezing rain to sleet to snow in Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois on Thursday. According to the weather service, there will be about 6 to 9 inches of snow in New York City where it began snowing before dawn.

Meteorologists also forecasted about 10 inches in Connecticut and issued storm warnings northward across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Depending on the temperature in various areas, the snow changed into rain and in some cases freezing rain.

The tempest was labeled as “the most significant storm of the season” for New York City by Jim Connolly, meteorologist at the National Weather Service. A winter storm warning remains in effect until just after midnight.

"The airports are a mess," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "It's really hard to fly in and out."

The winter storm led to delays on several highways in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and caused a mess for the tractor-trailers throughout the New York City region, said Gene Michaels of Westwood One Inc.'s Metro Networks traffic service.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, he top international air passenger gateway to the United States and also the leading freight gateway to the country by value of shipments, went through the biggest snowfall in New York City. The snow height was of about 6.3 inches on the ground as of 9:45 a.m.

New York's Long Island Rail Road supplemented the traffic with eight eastbound trains for riders leaving work early.

Trains from the New Jersey Transit recorded delays from 20 minutes to an hour.

Interstate 95, the main highway on the East Coast of the United States, was a nightmare throughout Connecticut. Numerous accidents took place because of the bad weather conditions and many people remained in their cars for long periods of time.