Snow Totals Update: How Much Snow Have We Gotten So Far After Huge Northeast Storm
The latest snow totals show a massive system pummeled the northeastern United States from Maryland to Maine on Monday, forcing millions to stay home amid strong wind and blizzard warnings, transportation shutdowns, and widespread school and business closures. The scale of the event — the strongest in a decade — left transit immobilized in places, prompted emergency declarations, and produced power failures while authorities warn another system could follow later this week.
Snow Totals by location
Measured accumulations included more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in parts of the metropolitan Northeast, with Central Park recording 19 inches (48 centimeters) and Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeding 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. These snow totals shattered accumulation records in some communities and helped produce hazardous travel conditions across the region.
Extent and impacts across the Northeast
The storm struck a broad swath from Maryland to Maine on Monday. Officials declared emergencies as strong wind and blizzard warnings accompanied the heavy snow. Transportation shutdowns and school and business closures were widespread; New York City experienced its first "old-school" snow day in six years. The storm’s disruption extended beyond local services: the United Nations postponed a Security Council meeting because of the conditions.
How meteorologists described the storm
Weather authorities characterized Monday’s system as a classic bomb cyclone and nor'easter off the Northeast coast. A bomb cyclone is defined by a storm's pressure falling by a specific amount within a 24-hour period and tends to occur mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can push south and collide with warmer air masses. Forecasters said the storm represented a rare combination of power and aesthetic spectacle, driven by near-ideal temperatures that favored heavy, wet snowfall.
Owen Shieh, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, described the event as a "Goldilocks situation" for heavy, wet snow: any warmer and precipitation would not have fallen as snow, any colder and there would have been less moisture available to fuel the snowfall.
Human scenes: streets, tourists and rescuers
Lower Manhattan felt transformed: snow shovelers appeared to outnumber commuting office workers, and pedestrians walked freely in streets normally clogged with morning traffic. Luis Valez, a concierge at a residential tower just off Wall Street, cleared sidewalk and described the scene as very quiet except for howling winds, with only a few residents venturing out to fetch essentials.
In Brooklyn, 57-year-old attorney Matthew Wojtkowiak was shoveling in his neighborhood and said that, having grown up in the Midwest, the conditions were manageable — "not too bad, not too easy, either. " He noted that schools were closed and expressed hope that people would get out and enjoy the snow.
Tourists Karen Smith and Adele Bawden, visiting from the United Kingdom, spent part of the morning in Times Square, with Bawden saying they had been dancing in the middle of the road. Ingrid Devita described patrolling the Lower East Side on skis to check on residents, noting that she sometimes finds people who have fallen in the snow and cannot get up.
Wind, maritime concerns and cleanup
The storm produced extreme winds: the highest recorded gust was 83 mph (133 kph) in Nantucket, and hurricane-force gusts were reported across Cape Cod. In Connecticut, crews at the Mystic Seaport Museum prepared to clear snow by hand from a fleet of historic ships, including the 113-foot-long Charles W. Morgan, a wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet. Shannon McKenzie, vice president of watercraft operations and preservation, said shipyard staff will clear the snow by hand using rubber or plast — unclear in the provided context.
What comes next
Even as snow moved northward and tapered off in some areas, the National Weather Service said it is tracking another storm that could bring additional snow to the region later this week. Officials and residents remain on alert as cleanup continues and infrastructure recovery efforts advance across the affected states.
A video package titled NY 'A World Transformed’ was released in recent video coverage highlighting conditions in New York City.
