The storm could break Boston's all-time snowstorm record of 27.6 inches, set in 2003.
Snowfall predictions in the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey held steady late Friday while conditions to the north and east worsened to potentially historic levels.
The National Weather Service about 10 p.m. maintained a winter storm warning for Lehigh, Northampton, Warren and Hunterdon counties until 6 a.m. Saturday. Between 4 to 8 inches of snow is expected throughout the night with wind gusts up to 30 mph.
However, between 1 and 3 feet of snow is feared in Boston. The storm could break the city's all-time snowstorm record of 27.6 inches, set in 2003, forecasters said. It also comes almost 35 years to the day after the Blizzard of '78, a ferocious storm that dropped 27 inches of snow, packed hurricane-force winds and claimed dozens of lives.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide travel ban, believed to be the first since the 1978 storm.
The National Weather Service says 3 inches of snow has fallen in the city but parts of southeast Massachusetts have 6 inches and central Rhode Island has 8. The Weather Underground blog indicated several towns in New England and New York state had broken 12 inches as of 10 p.m.
More than 118,000 homes and businesses have lost electricity, mostly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Newark, New Jersey's largest city, and New York City are also under blizzard warnings.
Locally, sporadic reports provided by the National Weather Service gave glimpses of the area's snowfall throughout the day. Hackettstown had almost 2 inches by 5 p.m. and Flemington saw about an inch and a half by 5:30. Blairstown Township reported 2 and a half inches at 10:30 p.m.
Allentown saw less than half an inch by 7 p.m., the time of the weather service's latest report.
PPL, Met-Ed and JCP&L were reporting only a handful of power outages in the area at 10 p.m.