Nor’easter Leaves At Least One Person Dead, Over 9,000 Flights Delayed or Cancelled, Thousands Remain Without Power

A snow plow on a Vermont country road after heavy snow
One person is dead, over 9,000  flights were either delayed or cancelled, and thousands remain without power after a powerful nor’easter pummeled the northern Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Tuesday, unleashing up to 2” (51 mm) of snow per hour and dumping as much as a foot or more in some areas.
The nor’easter – a designation given storms along the East Coast of North America when the winds over the coastal area are from the northeast – developed Monday night from the same sprawling system that thrashed and soaked the Gulf Coast and Southeast over the weekend. A nor’easter, which is not season dependent, is a storm that occurs when cold and dry Arctic air coming down from Canada meets warm and moist air near the coast, creating a powerful mix of heavy rain or snow.
At least one person is dead as a result of the storm: A 20-year-old man has died after his snowmobile collided with a downed utility line in rural Pennsylvania.
The storm disrupted travel, with 7,642 delays on flights within, into, and out of the United States with an additional 1,391 cancellations.
It also left more than 130,000 homes and businesses without power, and forced the closure of schools for millions of students across the region. As of Wednesday morning, almost 40,000 homes and businesses in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania were still without power where the storm hit hardest.
New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest school district, was slated to switch to its online learning system on Tuesday and school buildings were closed. However,  technical problems first thing in the morning prevented many of the 915,000 students from logging into Zoom.
“We are currently experiencing issues with services that require IBM authentication to login,” the New York City Board of Education said on social media, adding that “[W]e are actively working with IBM to resolve.”
The snow left up to 15” (381 mm) in the region. New York City picked up 3.2” (81 mm) of snow in Central Park. In Queens, John F. Kennedy International Airport reported 4.2” (107 mm) while LaGuardia Airport measured 3.3” (84 mm). Almost 5” (127 mm) was reported at Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
In Nassau County on Long Island, Glen Cove reported 8.1” (206 mm), while in Suffolk County, Stony Brook reported 7” (178 mm). Further north in Westchester, White Plains also reported 7” (178 mm), Yorktown Heights saw 10” (254 mm), and Peekskill recorded 10.5” (274 mm).
Further north in New York State in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Beacon reported 10” (254 mm), Wappinger Falls saw 9” (229 mm), and Cornwall recorded 12” (305 mm).
Lake Hopatcong in Morris County, New Jersey, recorded 8” (203 mm) and Essex Falls in Essex County and West Milford in Passaic County saw 9.5” (241 mm), while Milford, Pennsylvania, got 15” (381 mm).
In Pennsylvania, snow totals varied wildly across the area. Parts of the Poconos saw over a foot (305 mm), and about 10″ fell in Allentown (254 mm). Meanwhile, Philadelphia International Airport reported just six-tenths of one inch (15 mm).
(Photo: Accura Media Group)