Clean-up operations have begun in the US after heavy snows and gale-force winds battered the eastern seaboard in the first major blizzard to hit the region in four years.
Large cities, including Boston and Atlantic City, bore the brunt of the storm, with parts of the state of New York seeing two feet (61cm) of snow fall, while over 31,000 people in Massachusetts remained without power into Sunday afternoon.
Transport links along the east coast were heavily disrupted. Over 6,000 flights were cancelled and 90% of Saturday flights at Boston’s Logan Airport and New York’s LaGuardia were scrapped and over 10 states were put under a blizzard warning.
The National Weather Service (NWS) explained that the storm, called Nor’easter, had had undergone bombogenesis, meaning that colder air mixed with warmer sea air, leading to a swift drop in atmospheric pressure. The process leads to a so-called bomb cyclone.
In New York City, Governor Kathy Hochul said that snow ploughs have been deployed across the state to help clear roads after a storm that saw the New York City’s iconic Central Park record a record 7.3 inches (18.5cm) of snowfall.
Islip in Long Island was the state’s hardest hit area. Ms Hochul joked that the town was in line to receive “the golden snowball award” after more than 24.7 inches (62.7cm) of snow fell on the town.
But much of the state avoided large power outages and New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Saturday that his city had handled the storm like a “well-oiled machine”.
Airline operations across the US were seriously disrupted by the weather and New York’s John. F. Kennedy airport tweeted that flight operations were getting back to a slow start on Sunday.
However, an additional 1,400 flights were cancelled over the course of the day, while thousands more delayed.
At the Bunker Hill war memorial in Boston, workers faced a tough challenge clearing away the remnants of the storm. According to the NWS, the city matched its record for the largest snowfall in a single day. Over 23.6 inches (59.9cm) fell over the course of Saturday, equalling the previous record set in 2003.
The town of Sharon, 18 miles (29 kilometres) south of Boston, had recorded its highest ever snowfall by 20:30 on Saturday evening, with more than 30 inches of snow falling.
Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito told reporters that the state’s clear-up could continue into Monday.
Meanwhile, a number of towns and cities across Massachusetts faced major power outage over the course of the weekend, with over 116,000 households left without power on Saturday.
State officials had restored electricity to the majority of the state by Sunday morning, with the remaining outages concentrated around Cape Cod.
Elsewhere in Massachusetts, some coastal communities experienced some moderate flooding after the stormy weather caused high tides.
Meanwhile, in Maine officials issued wind chill warnings and temperatures remained low, and in Rhode Island an emergency road travel ban was lifted overnight.
