Blizzard Of 2010

Yesterday, parts of the area had their biggest snowfall since February 2006, as a blizzard dumped anything from a few inches to as much as 18-20 inches of snow in the New York City tri-state area. This blizzard was the second major storm to affect the Mid Atlantic in one week, as several days earlier, a record setting blizzard hit cities such as Washington DC and Philadelphia, and spared NYC and further north.

With the addition of this blizzard, cities such as Washington DC and Philadelphia set their records for the highest snow totals in a single winter, even passing other snowy winters such as 1995-96, and there is still another month of winter left. The New York City area is still far from reaching the snowiest winter, though this storm bumped up most of the region to above average snowfall for the winter.

When the storm started in the area, a heavy wet snow fell, with mixing further south towards Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. After a very intense snow band moved into Long Island, producing very high snowfall rates, the mixing line reached the area, with sleet and rain mixing in Long Island, New York City and parts of northeast New Jersey. Some places near the coast even switched to plain rain for a while. Places north and west of New York City did not see any mixing, however places north and west of north-central New Jersey were affected by a dry slot, which also reduced snowfall amounts.

The storm, however, busted in in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The heavy snow was expected to advance into these areas, producing over 12 inches of snow. Instead, the storm never got its heaviest snows past southern Connecticut, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, and places further north ended up with only a few inches of snow.

After a full day of snow, the last part of the storm left not too long after midnight, when a band of heavy snow that affected Long Island with lighter snow in northeastern New Jersey and Connecticut left the area.