Weather News

Northeast US buried by feet of snow

Josh Fisher, Wednesday January 28, 2015 - 13:35 AEDT

Parts of the Northeast US have been buried by up to three feet of snow after a large winter storm swept up the east coast. High winds and large storm surges also battered the coast, but conditions are set to ease.

The feature that delivered the heavy snow was what's known as a Nor'Easter. These strong low pressure systems can occur at anytime of the year along the northeast coast of the US, but are especially dangerous during the winter months. Nor'Easters draw cold air from the Arctic air mass, which then collides with warm air from the oceanic Gulf Stream that acts as fuel for the developing system. The injection of cold air along with the high moisture content can lead to blizzard conditions with heavy snow and gale force winds, as was seen over the past 24 hours.

Major centres from New York city to Boston were essentially shut down as the storm passed, with airports closed and all non-essential road travel banned. Plows have struggled to keep up with the snowfalls with as much as 10cm an hour falling in areas of Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The Big Apple missed out on the heaviest snowfalls, with around 25cm recorded at Central Park, leaving some New Yorkers wondering why the city had been grounded to a stand-still. Not too far from the city, however, over 70cm of snow fell through parts of Long Island.

Boston and surrounds copped some of the highest totals with the city itself gaining over 60cm of snow. And this storm hit close to home for this meteorologist, literally, with around 90cm falling in my hometown of Framingham, just 30km west of Boston.

It was not only the heavy snow that battered the Northeast US, but also high winds and large storm surges. Areas along the coast of New York and Massachusetts recorded winds in excess of 110km/h while storm surges pushed three to four feet above the high tides. This led to coastal inundation, flooding some coastal properties.

The snow has now finished for New York City and will continue to ease through other parts of the northeast into Wednesday. Despite easing snowfalls, the ongoing cleanup means that school and work has already been called off for a second day in a row.

- Weatherzone

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