A powerful weather system battered the tri-state region with heavy rain and strong winds over the weekend, with fast-moving storms blanketing northern New England in snow and leaving about 360,000 homes in the Northeast without power.
As of 6 a.m. ET Sunday, more than 197,000 homes in Maine, 81,000 in New York and 73,000 in New Hampshire were affected, according to PowerOutage.us, which compiles live power outage data. There was a power outage.
“Keep you and your family safe even if the power goes out,” Robert Buxton, director of the New Hampshire Department of Safety's Homeland Security and Emergency Management division, said Saturday night. “When a power outage occurs, crews are dispatched and working diligently to restore power. If you encounter downed power lines, please leave the area and call 911.”
He recommended staying informed by telephone or radio broadcasts, using flashlights rather than candles for emergency lighting, and refraining from using gas stoves or ovens for alternative heat.
A flood watch was in effect Saturday morning for the New York City metropolitan area, which runs through south-central New Jersey. The storm was expected to dump up to 4 inches of rain in parts of the region.
Governor Cathy Hochul urged New Yorkers to “stay off the roads, avoid crowding snowplows, and avoid downed power lines.”
The heaviest rainfall is expected on Saturday afternoon and evening, with the possibility of minor flooding of low-lying areas such as roads and gardens.
By Sunday morning, footage showed the Northeast covered in snow, trees down in New York City and roads and highways flooded across the region.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the New York City area on Saturday, with winds of up to 25 mph expected across the region.
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that winds of that speed could cause flying debris, power outages and send unsafe objects into the air.
Weather conditions caused significant delays throughout New York City's airports. Arrivals at John F. Kennedy International Airport were delayed by an average of three hours as of 5 p.m. EDT, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Arrivals and departures were also delayed at LaGuardia Airport.
Philadelphia has already surpassed daily precipitation records, with 3.06 inches falling, the wettest March since 1872, according to the National Weather Service.
Elsewhere, fast-moving storms will dump snow across parts of northern New England. More than 30 million people were under winter warnings from the northern Rockies and upper Midwest through the central Great Lakes and into New England.
Light to moderate snow is expected from the upper Midwest to the Great Lakes, with snow accumulations of 2 to 7 inches expected. 12 to 18 inches of snow is expected in northern New England areas.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency said the storm could bring the biggest snowfall of the season and urged motorists to be careful.
“The combination of precipitation in some areas could create particularly hazardous travel conditions,” the agency said in a post. X. “Please check the local weather forecast.”
More than 12 inches of rain is possible in the Twin Cities area. Combined with the 2.9 inches of snow from Thursday night and Friday morning's “teaser” snowstorms, the snow total could exceed the 14.3 inches that fell last season.
Meanwhile, a trailing storm moved eastward and hit the California coast, bringing 1/2 inch to 1 inch of rain to the Bay Area. More than 6 inches of snow was also recorded in the Sierra Nevada, with Heavenly Lake Tahoe Resort reporting 10 inches of fresh snow Saturday morning.
In Oxnard, a coastal city northwest of Los Angeles, 0.59 inches of precipitation set a modern-day precipitation record. Lancaster, a high desert city in Los Angeles County, also received 0.53 inches of precipitation.
Orange and San Diego counties mostly recorded less than an inch of rain by the time most of the storm passed by Saturday evening.
The same front is moving east and is expected to bring “heavy snow, strong winds, and the potential for blowing snow to the Northern Plains and upper Midwest into Tuesday morning,” the National Weather Service said in a forecast discussion.
Scattered severe thunderstorms are possible from Kansas to Texas on Sunday, the weather service said.