Event Summary

Coastal low pressure rapidly intensified Saturday night as it tracked northeast from off the Delmarva Coast...just southeast of the 40N/70W benchmark to southeast of Cape Cod by Sunday morning. This was in response to a powerful upper low approaching and then crossing south of the area. The track of low pressure to the southeast of the region and stubborn placement of arctic high pressure over the Northern US Plains and Southern Canadian Plains...ridging eastward...made for the ideal setup for heavy snow across most of the region. The rapid intensification of low pressure created blizzard or near blizzard conditions over Long Island for several hours with northeast winds of 15 to 25 mph and gusts 35 to 45 mph creating visibilities below 1/4 mile. Near whiteout conditions were experienced across Suffolk County during the height of the storm. Snowfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour occurred with an intense mesoscale band that developed S of the region moving northwest into West/Central Long Island that then slowly pulled east through the overnight. Snow totals increased rapidly from northwest to southeast across the region...with 3 to 6 inches across Orange County, 1 ft across the NYC metro are and around 2 ft across Suffolk County.