Northeast faces below-freezing temperatures as it recovers from record breaking snowstorm
(CNN)Parts of the Northeast are still digging out from under record amounts of snow as the region braces for continued cold temperatures.
The nor’easter that struck over the weekend became a “bomb cyclone” Saturday morning, meaning the storm strengthened rapidly and barometric pressure dropped more than 24 millibars within 24 hours, the Weather Prediction Center said.
The intensity of the storm meant that parts of Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania experienced never-before-seen levels of snowfall.
Electric services continue to be restored in affected areas. Less than 1,000 customers were still without power in Massachusetts as of early Monday morning, according to the state’s emergency management agency, an improvement from around 16,000 outages Sunday afternoon.
Regional shelters and warming centers have been set up for those without electricity and looking to escape the harsh conditions, Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said Sunday. Highs across New England are expected to stay below-freezing Monday.
Calendar records broken in multiple cities
Several snowfall records were shattered Saturday, according to the National Weather Service, as the storm swept across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Atlantic City, New Jersey, recorded 14 inches of snow, breaking the old record for the calendar date of 7.3 inches set in 2014. The city’s monthly total is now 33.2 inches, far surpassing the previous monthly mark of 20.3 inches set in January 1987.
Breaking a mark set more than a century ago, Philadelphia recorded 5.8 inches of snow, the most ever recorded on the date of January 29. The prior record was 5 inches set in 1904.
The same storm in 1904 set the January 29 snowfall record for New York’s Central Park — which held until Saturday. The park recorded 7.3 inches of snow, eclipsing the earlier record by more than 2 inches.
John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport also had new snowfall records Saturday as air travel was heavily impacted by the storm. More than 1,500 flights in the US were canceled Sunday due to the nor’easter, according to aviation tracker Flightaware.com. More than 3,500 flights were halted Saturday.
Boston experienced its snowiest January day ever Saturday, with 24.5 inches of snow recorded.
New storm this week for eastern US
As the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic recover, more precipitation is on the way for swaths of the eastern US as a new storm is expected to emerge, stretching from the Great Lakes to Texas by Wednesday and Thursday.
The northern end of the storm, including parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, may see widespread heavy snowfall with accumulations of more than 1 foot, according to forecasts.
A band of ice from the Ohio River Valley to the southern Plains is also possible, with widespread ice accumulations between 1/2″-3/4″ of ice and isolated areas seeing over 1″ of ice, leading to devastating power outages.
Strong thunderstorms and heavy rains may strike the southern US. Widespread rainfall totals of 2-4 inches are possible for much of the South, with isolated amounts up to 6 inches possible in parts of Texas.
CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Liam Reilly, Aya Elamroussi, Jason Hanna and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/weather/noreaster-bomb-cyclone-storm-monday/index.html
