New England bears brunt of winter snowstorm
New York escaped the worst of the weather but Massachusetts was not so fortunate.
A major snowstorm, which has caused widespread disruption across the northeastern US, is still pounding New England.
Much has been made in the US media of the relative lack of snow that has fallen in New York, even as thousands of flights were cancelled and the city’s subway was closed for the first time in its 100-year history.
A blanket travel ban was imposed by the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, in anticipation of the storm’s arrival.
New York certainly did experience cold, windy and snowy weather, but nowhere near as bad as the National Weather Service had predicted.
Snow lay to a depth of 25cm in Central Park, Manhattan, but more than double that amount would have been required to make the city’s top five snowfall events.
Out on Long Island snow was considerably heavier. About 71cm was predicted, no doubt helped by the strong to gale force winds, which would have produced blizzard-like conditions.
If New York “dodged a bullet” as de Blasio described it, New England did not.
The heaviest snowfall here was across Massachusetts. An impressive 91cm fell in Lunenburg, while Boston recorded 59cm, just outside the top five snow totals in the city’s history (63cm in February 2013).
But the snow is still falling across the region and some of these totals may be revised upwards.
Huge seas with offshore waves of around 10m have caused considerable beach erosion in eastern Massachusetts, while freezing spray has caused ice to accumulate on buildings and power lines causing some to collapse.
Maine is expected to see the worst of the any further snow on Wednesday before the system finally blows itself out.