Three-day snowstorm finally ends for northeast US

A blizzard-like blast from a storm that has raged across the United States since before Thanksgiving slammed the northeast on Monday and continued its journey through the region on Tuesday.

Hundreds of travellers were stranded at Boston’s Logan International Airport with more than 300 flights cancelled, nearly 750 delayed, schools closed and roads gridlocked.

The disruption was widespread as the first snowstorm of the season dumped 90 centimetres (three feet) of snowfall across parts of New Hampshire, blanketing much of the northeast with more than 60cm (two feet) of snowfall.

On Tuesday morning, nearly 19,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania. About 10,000 outages were reported in the state of New York and nearly 50,000 in New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.US.

Nearly 1,000 accidents were reported in snowy conditions across the northeast, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and to warn people to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

The final three-day storm total at Albany International Airport, New York state, was 57.4cm (22.6 inches), making it the eighth biggest snowstorm in the city’s recorded history and the fourth biggest in December.

“This is also the most snow in one storm since the March 13-14, 1993 superstorm,” the National Weather Service in Albany said on Twitter.

On Sunday, the 37.8cm (13.3 inches) snowfall at the airport broke the previous daily record set back on December 1, 1969, of 9.9cm (3.7 inches). On Monday, another daily record was broken with 17.3cm (6.8 inches), surpassing the city’s old total of 15.7cm (6.2 inches) from 1949.

The record-breaking amounts of snow may be moving away for now, but with the season just beginning, there will be plenty more in the weeks ahead.