NYC hit by biggest snowstorm in years; over 1,000 flights canceled
The Northeast is digging out from the biggest snowstorm of the winter after heavy snow buried areas from West Virginia through Massachusetts, prompting school closures and travel chaos Tuesday.
On Tuesday, 3.2 inches fell in New York City, the highest single-day snowfall in the city since 7.3 inches accumulated in Central Park on Jan. 29, 2022. The snow was not as heavy in downtown Philadelphia, where around 2 inches was measured, although more than half a foot was reported in suburbs north and west of the city. Little to no accumulation was reported in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
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Over 1,200 flights were canceled across the Northeast, according to FlightAware, putting the skids on the Tuesday morning commute. Snow-covered roads also led to treacherous travel for motorists across the region, including in eastern Pennsylvania where AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell said, "It is a mess."
The highest snowfall total was reported in Farmington, Connecticut, where 15.5 inches of snow fell. Around a foot of powder was also measured in the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, parts of northern New Jersey, New York's Hudson Valley and central Connecticut.
More than 180,000 electric customers were without power across the Northeast as of late Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us -- most of those, 150,000, in Pennsylvania. By Wednesday morning, outages across the region had fallen below 50,000.
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The heavy, wet snow was slow to accumulate on some roads, as the ground was still warm following an unusually mild start to February; however, the snow clung to trees and other elevated surfaces, turning landscapes into a winter wonderland.
Residents across the Northeast will have a few days to dig out from the early week snowstorm before the next storm swings through the region near the end of the week.
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