(Trends Wide) — the worst of nor’easter that dumped record snowfall on parts of the East Coast has passed, but “dangerously cold” wind chills remained in some areas Sunday morning, forecasters said.
About 1 million people in the Northeast were under winter weather warnings early Sunday, up from nearly 16 million affected by such warnings Saturday night.
Blizzard warnings, which affected millions in several states on Saturday, have also been reduced in eastern and northern Maine, where more than 240,000 people were affected as of 1 a.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). its acronym in English).
A blizzard, as defined by the NWS, requires blowing or falling snow, winds of at least 35 miles per hour, and visibility of a quarter mile or less for at least three hours.
Those conditions were reached Saturday in several places in Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, including Boston, the NWS said.
Wind speeds, which reached more than 80 mph on Saturday in eastern Massachusetts, are expected to decrease to around 15-25 mph on Sunday, though gusts could be higher in some local areas, according to Trends Wide Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
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Later Sunday, some areas, including Buffalo, New York and Pittsburgh, will see temperatures improve by about 10 degrees.
Meanwhile, cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia will see a slight drop of about 4 degrees on Sunday.
“Although temperatures are going to pick up (on Sunday), we’ll have to be patient for any real warming, which doesn’t come until the middle of the week,” Van Dam said.
The frigid cold follows record-breaking heavy snowfall across the Northeast in parts of southern New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The storm became a “bomb cyclone” on Saturday morning, meaning it rapidly strengthened and barometric pressure dropped more than 24 millibars in 24 hours, the Weather Prediction Center said.
The storm wreaked havoc on transportation in the region, creating dangerous road conditions and delays and cancellations of air and rail travel.
More than 3,580 flights into, to or from the US were canceled on Saturday, according to FlightAware, and more than 1,000 have already been canceled for Sunday as of early morning. Major airlines offered waivers and alternative options to passengers whose travel was affected by the storm.
Snow and wind record
The bomb cyclone brought heavy snowfall that quickly accumulated as howling winds blew through the region.
The town of Stoughton, Massachusetts, recorded a staggering 30 inches of snow on Saturday night, the NWS said. And winds in parts of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, where Cape Cod is located, reached 80 mph on Saturday, the service said.
By Sunday morning, up to 2 feet of snow could fall from Long Island through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, Trends Wide forecasters said.
An aerial view shows the snow cover in Central Park on Saturday. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Here are some notable snowfall records:
Atlantic City, NJ: The city smashed its all-time snowfall record for January on Saturday, reaching a monthly total of 84.3 centimeters of snow. The previous monthly record of 51.5 centimeters was set in January 1987. The city’s 35 centimeters of snow on Saturday also beat its previous record for the calendar date, which was set in 2014 at 18.5 centimeters.
Boston: Logan International Airport recorded at least 2 feet of snow Saturday night, the NWS said, making Saturday the snowiest day in January Boston has ever recorded and tying the record for the most snowfall total in one day. The previous record was set on January 27.
Central Park, New York: the iconic park saw 18.5 centimeters on Saturday, surpassing the previous January 29 record of 12 centimeters set in 1904.
Philadelphia: the city was hit with 14.7 centimeters of snow on Saturday, surpassing the previous record of 12.7 centimeters established January 29, 1904.
Boston has tied the record for biggest 1 day snowfall! 23.6 inches. The storm total is 23.8 but 0.2″ fell on 1/28 pic.twitter.com/NN7dKkPqe4
– NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) January 30, 2022
Power outages continue
High winds from the storm brought down power lines, leaving thousands of people still in the dark.
Nearly 65,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts lost power early Sunday morning according to PowerOutage.us, up from more than 88,000 on Saturday night.
Pedestrians make their way through heavy snow in New York’s Times Square on Saturday. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
High winds and snow pushed down several trees across Nantucket Island, while some areas were left without power due to downed power lines, the island’s fire chief, Stephen Murphy, told Trends Wide on Saturday afternoon. . Several roads were also closed due to flooding, the chief said.
“We get coastal flooding when we have these types of storms, but it was pretty intense today,” Jason Graziadei, editor of the local Nantucket Current newsletter, told Trends Wide. “People (are) just crouching here.”
Scituate, a coastal Massachusetts city southeast of Boston, experienced some light to moderate flooding at high tide Saturday morning, with water splashing over levees, City Manager Jim Boudreau told Trends Wide.
In Marshfield, another coastal Massachusetts city, about 4 feet of water flooded the boardwalk at high tide, city manager Michael A. Maresco told Trends Wide.
Jason Hanna, Christina Maxouris, Brynn Gingras, Brian Todd, Artemis Moshtaghian, Liam Reilly, Tyler Mauldin y David Williams de Trends Wide contribuyeron a este reporte.
