A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the US east coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.
The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2ft of snow by early Sunday.
Winds gusted as high as 83mph on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. More than 22in (55.8cm) of snow had fallen by mid-afternoon on part of Long Island. Bayville, New Jersey, had 19in (48.2cm). The wind scoured the ground bare in some spots and piled snow into huge drifts in others.
Forecasters watched closely for snowfall records, especially in Boston, where the heaviest snow was expected later on Saturday. Boston area’s modern snowfall record is 27.6in (70.1cm), set in 2003.
New York City and Philadelphia were far from setting records but still saw significant snowfall, with at least 7.5in(19cm) in Central Park in Manhattan and at the Philadelphia airport.
The climate crisis, particularly the warming ocean, probably influenced the strength of the storm, atmospheric researchers said.
Much warmer ocean waters “are certainly playing a role in the strengthening of the storm system and increased moisture available for the storm”, said Jason Furtado, a University of Oklahoma meteorology professor. “But it isn’t the only thing.”
The weather may have contributed to the death of an elderly woman found early on Saturday morning in a hotel parking lot in Uniondale with her car window open, according to an officer at the Nassau county police department in Long Island.
The storm hit nearly 44 years to the day after a monstrous blizzard crippled New England. Dumping more than 27in (70cm) of snow on Boston, the 1978 storm killed dozens, trapped others in their homes and shut highways for a week.
On Saturday, more than 120,000 homes and businesses lost power in Massachusetts. No other states reported widespread outages.
Airlines canceled more than 4,500 flights at some of the busiest US airports, according to FlightAware. Amtrak suspended or limited service on the Boston-to-Washington corridor.
Officials warned people to stay off the roads amid potential whiteout conditions. In West Hartford, Connecticut, a tractor-trailer jackknifed on Interstate 84, closing several westbound lanes. Massachusetts banned heavy trucks from interstate highways. Rhode Island, under a blizzard warning, banned all non-emergency road travel.
“This is serious. We’re ready for this storm, and we also need Rhode Islanders to be ready,” Governor Dan McKee said.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, advised people to stay home as the storm lingered longer than expected. She also warned of below-zero windchills after it passes. New York declared a state of emergency on Friday.
“This is a very serious storm, very serious. We’ve been preparing for this. This could be life-threatening,” Hochul said. “It’s high winds, heavy snow, blizzard conditions all the elements of a classic nor’easter.”
Early in the day, in suburban Boston, a bundled-up Nicky Brown, 34, stood at the doors of Gordon’s liquor store in Waltham, waiting for it to open.
“My boyfriend is out driving a plow and I had a bunch of cleaning to do at home, and I want a drink while I’m doing it,” she said. “It’s a good day to stay inside and clean.”
In the seaside town of Newburyport, north of Boston near the New Hampshire border, officials strongly encouraged residents along the shore to move to higher ground.
Video on social media showed wind and waves battering North Weymouth, south of Boston, flooding streets with a slurry of frigid water. Another video showed a street underwater on Nantucket.
Amid a rush to stock up on supplies, the New England supermarket giant Stop & Shop asked customers to show restraint.
“We ask shoppers to buy what they need and save some for their neighbors,” the chain said in a statement.
Virginia, where a blizzard this month stranded hundreds of motorists for hours on Interstate 95, did not hesitate to get resources at the ready. In Maryland, the governor mobilized the national guard.
Washington and Baltimore were spared the worst of the storm, which was expected to blow by Sunday morning into Canada, where several provinces were under warnings.
One saving grace, at least in parts of Massachusetts: the snow should fall light and flaky because it is coming with cold weather that dries it out, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for the commercial firm Atmospheric Environmental Research.
That means lousy snowballs and snow less capable of snapping tree branches and tearing down power lines.
