Snow Blankets Eastern US from Georgia to Maine

A quick moving but intense snow storm swept across the Eastern half of the United States over the last 36 to 48 hours, blanketing areas from as far south as Georgia all the way up through Maine with double-digit snow accumulations.  The area of low pressure that fueled the storm is now offshore of Cape Cod but the effects linger on with much of the Northeast experiencing high winds blowing the snow and reducing visibility.

I live in a Philadelphia suburb and we experienced about seven to eight inches of snow accumulation.  It was the high winds of 20 to 30 mph that made the air biting cold and filled with snow; the wind chill factor dropped to the single digits.  Many other parts of the Mid Atlantic and New England regions were hit harder than the Philadelphia metro area but it was still a bitter day.

There was a noticeable lack of road clearing in the Philadelphia area.  Many roads remained unplowed and intersections were hazardous well into the evening.  Expect the commute this morning to be slower than usual given the low temperature of 11 degrees tonight will freeze and further harden any snow or ice on the roadways.  Today’s high is expected to be in the mid 20′s  so we will be relying solely upon direct sun-fueled sublimation to help eliminate the snow on the roads and sidewalks.  Airport delays reached over 100 minutes at Philadelphia International and up to 150 minutes at the three major New York area airports JFK, Laguardia and Newark International.

It is amazing that a snow storm of this magnitude leads to a major headline.  This storm affected somewhere near 50 million people, but many of the areas have a history of experiencing fairly significant snowfall.  States like Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina are not used to double digit snow accumulations but areas like Boston, New York, and even Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been the site for many foot plus snow storms in their past.  It seems that we are becoming more weather sensitive as the frequency of  these types of weather events dwindle.