It has been an unbelievable past 10 days for the Northeast and especially New Jersey and Greater New York City where the hardest impacts from Sandy were felt and will continue to be felt for a long time to come. So, it was Sandy last week and now it’s Winter Storm ‘Athena’.

A Nor’easter which began to get it’s act together yesterday as it headed north off the Eastern Seaboard produced over an inch of rain in Atlanta before the disturbance even left the land and became a low pressure centre. As the system headed north, it’s precipitation shield started to envelop the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast with heavy, wind-driven rains and even snow. As all this was occurring over land, it’s pressure was dropping and so onshore ‘northeast’ winds were steadily picking up. The system produced onshore wind gusts along the coast from Cape May to Cape Cod of between 50-60+mph. Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod recorded a gust to 76 mph with many gusts beyond 60 mph along coastal New England.

 

Sustained winds up there have been in the 30-40 mph range through the first part of today, however, while wind and waves may be impressive, it’s the snow which has caught the greatest attention. Anywhere from 1-2 inches to as much as 13.5 inches of snow has fallen from the south suburbs of Philadelphia all the way to Worchester, Massachusetts.

There is a long list of impressive records for earliest ‘big snows’. Staten Island, which is potentially the hardest hit of all areas from Sandy has been clobbered by the unusually early snowstorm. Several inches fell on rubble and partial or completely destroyed homes.

There is incredible scenes of snow covering the ground all the way to the beaches of the Jersey Shore, the very area in the epicentre of Sandy. Snow covers severely damaged boardwalks and properties.

At the start of last week, it was all about the record low pressures and high storm surge, this week it’s the record snow for so early in the season. In areas hardest hit from Sandy where rubble continues to be collected and power restored, as much as 4-8 inches of heavy, wet snow has fallen in these areas. Some remain without power while others have lost power due to this latest storm. I sure hope those without power are sheltering in some place warm! It’s going to be a cold night ahead.

Here’s a list generated by AccuWeather.com of the snow amounts and record set from this storm.

–Newark, N.J.: 5.7 inches (trace from 1981)

–Bridgeport, Conn.: 5.4 inches (2.0 inches from 1953)

–Worcester, Mass.: 5.2 inches (1.4 inches from 1953)

–New York City’s Central Park: 4.3 inches (0.1 of an inch from 1878)

–New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport: 4.0 inches (first occurrence of snow on November 7)

–Hartford, Conn.: 3.4 inches (0.2 of an inch from 1953)

–Atlantic City, N.J.: 2.5 inches (2.0 inches from 1953)

–Islip, N.Y.: 1.7 inches (first occurrence of snow on November 7)

–Providence, R.I.: 1.3 inches (trace from 2010)

–New York City’s LaGuardia Airport: 1.1 inches (first occurrence of snow on November 7)

–Bangor, Maine: 0.3 of an inch (trace from 2002)

Tags: nor'easter November 2012, November 2012 snowstorm 2012, winter storm athena