Event Summary

A historic and unprecedented early-season winter storm impacted the area on Saturday, October 29, with more than one foot of heavy wet snow falling on interior portions of the Lower Hudson Valley. This is the first time a winter storm of this magnitude has ever occurred in October. Late Friday night, October 28, an area of low pressure emerged from the South Carolina coastal plain into the western Atlantic Ocean. The low moved up the coast late Friday night into Saturday morning. The low began to rapidly strengthen late Saturday morning when it was east of the Delmarva coast, and continued to strengthen as it passed south of Long Island Saturday night. With water temperatures in the lower 60s, much of Long Island received mainly rainfall and up to 2 inches of rain during the event. Areas just north and west of New York City, however, were just cold enough to support a heavy wet snow. The heaviest snow fell across interior portions of the Lower Hudson Valley, with one foot or more of snowfall across highest elevations. In addition to the heavy rain and snow...strong winds were experienced along the immediate coastline. Thousands of people across southeast New York lost power during this event as heavy snow accumulated on trees that still had partial to full foliage during mid-autumn. This caused extensive felling of trees and limbs across the region and damage to power lines. A significant number of trees came down across the county starting around 1 pm EST due to the combined heavy wet snow and 15 to 20 mph winds. Hundreds of trees were downed through the storm. A significant number of trees came down across the county starting around 1 pm EST due to the combined heavy wet snow and 15 to 20 mph winds. Hundreds of trees were downed through the storm.