ROCHESTER - Blowing snow shut down a 134-mile stretch of the state Thruway for about six hours and high winds delayed flights into LaGuardia airport Monday as much of New York, beset by biting cold, dug out from under its first big snowstorm of the season.

With the barometer stuck in the teens, a fresh layer of snow blanketed large tracts of western and northern New York, shutting dozens of schools a day early for the holiday break. Up to eight inches were expected to envelop already snowed-in towns along lakes Erie and Ontario by Monday night, meteorologists said.

“I like the way it looks, I hate the way it feels,” John Cook, 26, his face florid from raw air that kicked up snowy shrouds, said as he navigated snow-clogged pavements in Rochester under a pale blue sky.

Snow banks were almost waist-high here after Friday's storm dumped more than a foot of snow across upstate. Wind gusts up to 50 miles an hour combined with fresh snow proved a treacherous mix overnight, sending dozens of vehicles sliding off New York's main east-west highway in whiteout conditions.

That forced officials to shut down Interstate 90 at around 2 a.m. between Rochester and the Pennsylvania line southwest of Buffalo. A 75-mile section from east of Buffalo to Pennsylvania was reopened before 8 a.m., followed a short time later by a 59-mile section extending west from Rochester.

High winds delayed some flights at New York City's LaGuardia Airport. And in Rochester, a US Airways plane arriving from New York with 39 people aboard got one of its wheels stuck in a snow bank while taxiing to a terminal. It was pulled clear within five minutes by an emergency crew, and no one was hurt.

Outside Buffalo, a 22-year-old motorist was seriously injured and charged with driving while intoxicated after his vehicle struck and killed a 32-year-old man riding a snowmobile down the middle of a street in North Tonawanda early Sunday.

Holiday shoppers flocking to malls took extra caution as snowplow operators struggled to keep even major roads clear of snow ruts and glaze. The cold also kept shoppers scurrying from place to place in a bid to spend as little time as possible outside.

“This is the price you pay by living here,” said Jim Hinman, a Rochester lawyer. “It's not that bad. You just have to be prepared for it. If we didn't go through this, then the spring wouldn't be as nice.”

While New York City was, as usual, a few degrees warmer than upstate, the 25-degree high was hardly conducive to waiting for a bus - even for just five minutes - on 34th Street in Manhattan.

“I'm trying not to think about the cold,” said Bryan Davis, a 27-year-old writer sporting sunglasses but lacking gloves, hat and scarf.

Kelly Dagostino of Texarkana, Ark., was visiting the city for the first time and bundled up so that the cold wouldn't keep her from her plans. “It's still cold, very cold, but I want to see stuff so we're out and about in it,” she said as she checked out Macy's holiday windows nearby.