Forecasters called it a “bomb cyclone” and predicted that the Boston area would be hit particularly hard.
Packing raking winds, blinding snows and piercing cold, a powerful, fast-moving winter storm roared up the East Coast on Saturday, bringing power outages, disrupted travel and general misery to millions of residents from the Carolinas to Maine. The worst of the storm was felt across the Northeast, particularly in New England, where gusting winds blew snow sideways, while flood-prone coastal areas watched warily as a storm surge pounded beaches and sea walls. Power outages were reported for more than 100,000 Massachusetts residents, and broader blackouts remained an ongoing concern as high winds threatened to snap snow-covered branches and cripple power lines into Saturday evening. “It’s a classic blizzard,” said Glenn Field, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, Mass., which noted that some areas in Massachusetts had received three to four inches of snow per hour on Saturday morning, according to radar estimates. Heavy snow continued through the afternoon, with wind gusts of more than 70 miles per hour in some locations, creating whiteout conditions. Indeed, the tempest’s intensity and drifting snow made even measuring the accumulation difficul t, though the storm was shaping up to be the biggest of the season in some regions, and maybe one of the biggest in decades. Mr. Field said up to 30 inches of snow was possible in coastal areas, potentially smashing a 2003 record for Boston of more than 27 inches. The wicked weather may have also claimed more than one life. In Nassau County, east of New York City, police were investigating the death of an elderly woman found dead inside her car at around 2:45 a.m., with at least one of the car’s windows open. And in Toms River, N.J., a man went into cardiac arrest and died while operating a snowblower, according to the Ocean County sheriff, Michael Mastronardy. The intense storm was characterized as a “bomb cyclone,” in which barometric pressure drops rapidly over 24 hours, producing high winds. As storms like this one move over coastal waters, they pick up moisture, resulting in heavy snow. The storm’s speed and ferocity, predicted for days, were being felt up and down the Interstate 95 corridor. There was significant snowfall in Southern cities like Asheville, N.C., and bitter cold was predicted overnight in locales like Charleston, S.C., part of a Southern cold snap. There was coastal flooding on Saturday afternoon on Cape Cod and in the streets of Nantucket, where gusts more akin to those in a tropical storm were felt. Nantucket officials and American Red Cross volunteers had opened an emergency warming shelter at the high school as power outages persisted and temperatures dipped. Emergency centers were also open on the Cape. Forecasters cautioned that storm would continue to bring snow and strong winds into the evening before heading offshore, where it could create 30-foot swells for any boat unlucky enough to be caught in open water. Tides were also predicted to rise on shore on Saturday evening, raising the specter of additional flooding.
