Eastern United States

The cherry blossoms are blooming in Brooklyn by the thousands; daffodils are budding in the Bronx; and in Central Park, toddlers have yet to see a single snowflake this winter, the first time in more than a century that the city's most celebrated sledding slopes have been snow-free so long into the season. Throughout the region, winter seems in full retreat. Temperatures have been running 6 degrees above normal for at least a month, federal weather experts said.

Online photo service Shutterfly Inc. said it planned to open a manufacturing facility in Charlotte, N.C., that would cut down on the time it takes to ship prints and photo gifts to the East Coast. "As you think about where our customers are in the U.S., approximately 60% are east of the Mississippi River," said Chief Executive Jeff Housenbold. Redwood City, Calif.-based Shutterfly prints digital photos and makes books, calendars, cards and other photo-bearing gifts at a plant in Hayward, Calif.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto put a sloppy, wet damper on the last big tourism weekend of the summer for many people, making a mess of some oceanfront hotels and leaving beaches and boardwalks less crowded than usual. Ernesto was reduced to an area of rain over western New York state and the lower Great Lakes after drenching Virginia and North Carolina with up to a foot on its run up the East Coast. More than half a million homes and businesses were without electricity.

Heavy rains caused serious flooding in Pennsylvania, Delaware and along Maryland's Eastern Shore, washing out roads and forcing some residents to evacuate their homes. Water up to 5 feet deep was reported in Maryland, and at least 20 roads were closed. In the southwest Delaware town of Seaford, cars floated in a Wal-Mart parking lot. In western Pennsylvania, flash floods prompted a state of emergency.

A developing nor'easter headed up the East Coast on Saturday with a threat of heavy snow, canceling flights and putting road crews on overtime but cheering up skiers in a region spared harsh weather for most of this season. Blizzard warnings were posted from the New York City area into eastern New England, where up to 15 inches of snow was possible, and a winter storm warning was issued for most of New Jersey, the National Weather Service said.

Citing hurricane damage to the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico, key lawmakers are trying to relax a decades-old federal ban on new drilling off California and the Atlantic Seaboard and to encourage energy prospecting in the Rocky Mountains. Congressional proposals also aim to waive some air pollution rules to encourage expansion of oil refineries and to authorize oil drilling beneath Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Hurricane Ophelia sat nearly stationary off the coast of the Carolinas on Sunday, taunting wary coastal residents after the destruction Katrina caused along the Gulf Coast. The storm was more than 200 miles offshore with sustained wind of nearly 75 mph, but it was generating heavy surf. A hurricane watch stretched more than 250 miles, from just north of Edisto Beach, S.C., to North Carolina's Cape Lookout. Warning of possible coastal flooding, Gov.

A hurricane watch was posted Saturday for the Southeast coast as Ophelia strengthened, and meteorologists said its meandering course could take a sharp turn toward land. The watch covers a 300-mile stretch from the Georgia-South Carolina line to North Carolina's Cape Lookout, meaning hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph were possible by tonight, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ophelia regained hurricane strength Friday on a course that could take it onto the U.S. coast, and forecasters urged residents from northern Florida to the Carolinas to keep close watch on its path over the next few days. The Category 1 storm had weakened to a tropical storm, but Friday evening, it had sustained winds of 75 mph. It was moving northeast at about 7 mph and was expected to keep on that track through today. Ophelia has been hard to predict, forecasters said.