Mid-Atlantic Blizzard Slowly Ending
A historic blizzard is winding down across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, but not before bringing record snowfall to the Interstate 95 corridor from New England to Washington, D.C. A few spots are still seeing snow this morning, but this will slowly taper off.
Blizzard Warnings are in place for Long Island, as well as the Connecticut coast, with Winter Storm Warnings stretching across southern Connecticut, Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, as well as across southeastern Virginia. Cities such as Bridgeport and New Haven, Conn., Providence, R.I., Cape Cod and the Islands, and Richmond, Va., remain in warnings. A Blizzard Warning means that wind-whipped snow is causing visibility to drop to near-zero along with drifting and fast-accumulating snow will make travel very difficult, if not impossible.
The snow “jackpot” has occurred on the eastern fringes of the Blue Ridge mountains from north-central Virginia to southern Pennsylvania. Many locales along the Interstate 81 corridor have received more than 3 feet of snow, with accumulations approaching 30 inches common across the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York metro areas. These totals have busted this storm into the record books, with New York City, Baltimore and Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., all securing top-billing for a single storm. Accumulations were "only" 7 to 10 inches in southern New England, although another inch or two of snow is possible before it all winds down later this morning.
The cause of the winter grief has been a powerful area of low pressure that slid across the Deep South late last week, before rapidly intensifying along the North Carolina Outer Banks. It then crept ever-so-slowly northeastward off the Eastern Seaboard, flinging waves of Atlantic moisture into the Mid-Atlantic, where it fell as heavy snow. That low is now making its way eastward well south of the New England coast, and as it pulls away, its grip on the East Coast will loosen today.
Snow wasn't the only card that this storm dealt. Strong onshore winds from the storm, combined with a full moon, led to severe coastal flooding, especially along the New Jersey coast and along the Delmarva Peninsula. A fishing pier was damaged in Ocean City, Md., from the surf, and the coastal surge spilled inland across southeastern New Jersey at several times on Saturday.
Cleanup will be an extended process. Many highways in the Mid-Atlantic are buried under feet of snow, and the race is on to clear some of the roads in hopes of having a semi-normal commute Monday morning. Smaller roads and sidewalks will likely remain snow-covered for much of the upcoming week. The good news is that milder weather is heading for the East Coast, so a nice, slow meltoff looks to be in the forecast for the region.
Regional travel remains at a standstill across the Northeast as well. Many airports, including all three in the D.C. metro area, are currently closed with all flights cancelled on Sunday. Amtrak is running a "modified" schedule today, with few if any trains crossing the snow-battered region. All commuter rail is cancelled on Sunday from New York to Washington, with the Washington Metro subway line closed on Sunday as they try to prepare for the Monday rush.