Northeast Blizzard Is One for the History Books

A massive snowstorm pummeled the northeastern US from Maryland to Maine on Monday, forcing millions of people to stay home amid strong wind and blizzard warnings, transportation shutdowns, and school and business closures. Meteorologists said the storm is the strongest in a decade, dumping more than 2 feet of snow in parts of the metropolitan Northeast, shattering accumulation records in places, immobilizing transit, and even leading the United Nations to postpone a Security Council meeting. Officials declared emergencies, schools closed, including in New York City, which had its first "old-school" snow day in six years, and people grappled with power failures, the AP reports.

• Storm-related power outages plunged more than 500,000 customers into darkness along the East Coast early Monday, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
• More than 5,600 flights in and out of the US were canceled Monday, and a further 2,000 flights scheduled for Tuesday were grounded, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most of the cancelations involved airports in New York, New Jersey, and Boston. Almost 2,500 flights were delayed.
• States of emergency were declared in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, NBC News reports. Around 40 million people are under winter alerts.

Even as the snow moved north and tapered off in other areas, the National Weather Service said it is tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.

• The Weather Service referred to Monday's storm as a "classic bomb cyclone/nor'easter off the Northeast coast." A bomb cyclone happens when a storm's pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.
• While it was paralyzing and potentially dangerous for millions along the Eastern Seaboard, meteorologists found themselves rhapsodizing over the combination of power and beauty. The storm hit the "Goldilocks situation" of just the right temperature for wet, heavy snow—any warmer and its precipitation wouldn't have fallen as snow. Any colder and there wouldn't have been as much moisture in the air to feed that snowfall, said Owen Shieh, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.
• "I've always been fascinated about how Mother Nature figures out how to put all the pieces together in order to maximize the most extreme outcome,'' said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "I think you could make a pretty good case that this is on par with some of the most impressive blizzards in history."

• Rhode Island's TF Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily ending all airport operations. The Weather Service reported that the facility got 32.8 inches of snow, breaking a record set in 1978.
• New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia switched to online learning. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it the "first old-school snow day since 2019." But class would be back in person on Tuesday, he said. "You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me," he told kids after saying schools would reopen.
• In Lower Manhattan, snow shovelers appeared to outnumber commuting office workers, and pedestrians walked freely in streets normally blocked by morning traffic. "It's very quiet, except for the howling winds," said Luis Valez, a concierge at a residential tower just off Wall Street, as he cleared the sidewalk. "A couple of residents have gone out to get their essentials. Other than that, there's nothing."