Thousands of people in the Northeast remained without power Tuesday amid frigid temperatures as people in that region and the mid-Atlantic recovered from extreme snowfall (including more than 2 feet in several states) of the previous two days and faced continued travel disruptions, including hundreds of canceled flights.
Temperatures across much of the Northeast are not expected to rise above freezing on Tuesday, so snow melt may be limited.
The storm, which began Sunday night, reached bomb cyclone status early Monday when it strengthened extremely rapidly, increasing winds to hurricane-force gusts, intensifying snow bands and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Local officials echoed state of emergency declarations and issued travel bans as tens of millions of people under blizzard warnings took shelter.
Of the more than 225,000 customers still without power in the region as of Tuesday night, more than 190,000 were in Massachusetts, the vast majority of whom were utility Eversource customers in southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, according to PowerOutage.us.
“It will take days” to turn on the lights for all Massachusetts customers, an Eversource official said.
“It’s a multi-day restoration,” Doug Foley, president of Eversource’s electric operations in Massachusetts, said at a news conference Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the last two clients will be a couple of days away.”
Those digging in the snow may have trouble getting anywhere despite the easing of travel bans, with public transport delays, icy road conditions and flight cancellations across the region.
As of 8 p.m. ET, just over 2,200 U.S. flights had been canceled Tuesday, according to FlightAware. The vast majority of those flights were scheduled to arrive or depart from the Northeast’s four major airports: Newark; Boston; and LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy in New York, which were still recovering from the storm on Tuesday.
Among those hoping to fly Tuesday was Alyssa Myers, whose flight from Philadelphia to Albuquerque Sunday afternoon was canceled. She rebooked and canceled several times.
“If you don’t have to go, cancel the trip, get a refund and wait for the weather to warm up,” Myers told CNN’s Danny Freeman at Philadelphia International Airport.
The historic storm had numerous impacts: Schools across the region closed, both the U.S. House and Senate postponed this week’s first set of votes, major train routes were adjusted, public transportation was halted, and even the popular food delivery service DoorDash suspended operations in the nation’s largest city.
Although the storm subsided Monday night, more is in the forecast. Here’s what you need to know:
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Impressive snow totals: From the Mid-Atlantic to New England, 1 to 3 feet of snow buried communities during the historic blizzard. ET on Monday, Providence, Rhode Island, recorded the most snowfall with 37.9 inches. Higher totals in other states include Whitman, Massachusetts, with 33.7 inches; Central Islip, New York, with 31 inches; North Stonington, Connecticut, with 30.8 inches; and Lyndhurst, New Jersey, with 30.7 inches. Follow more snow totals across the Northeast here.
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Records broken throughout the region: The bomb cyclone caused historic impacts to cities across the Northeast and became the largest snowstorm ever recorded in Providence. When just over 27 inches fell on Newark around 1 p.m., the snowstorm officially ranked as the city’s second-heaviest based on records dating back to 1931. The storm also marked the snowiest winter in the Big Apple since the 2020-2021 season. In Philadelphia, snowfall totals marked the most from a single storm since January 2016.
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Potential for more snow: Another chance for snow will materialize in the Northeast shortly after this brutal storm. Fortunately, it appears to be fast and without much snow potential. The new storm will bring some snow to the Great Lakes on Tuesday and move into the Northeast overnight into Wednesday. Most places in the region will see less than two inches, although higher elevations in Pennsylvania, New York and New England could see a few more.
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Dizzying flight cancellations: The monster bomb cyclone also wreaked havoc on air travel, with more than 10,000 U.S. flights canceled from Sunday to Tuesday. That includes more than 2,200 cancellations for Tuesday, most concentrated at Boston Logan International Airport, with high levels of disruption also spread across New York City-area airports, according to FlightAware.
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Widespread power outages persist: Power outages spiked into Monday, caused by extreme winds and heavy snow, with more than 400,000 customers without power at 6:30 a.m. ET that day, and 650,000 five hours later. Blackouts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions appeared to stabilize at 1 p.m. Monday.. But some power restoration efforts were delayed because of the same weather that caused them. As of Tuesday night, more than 225,000 customers were still affected.
