Snow total records were smashed in Rhode Island, where a jaw-dropping 37.9 inches of snow was recorded from the nor’easter. Here’s a closer look at the impacts.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Numerous records were shattered across New England from a powerful nor’easter that bared down on the Northeast on Monday, but the smallest state in the U.S. set a jaw-dropping new record for its recorded snowfall totals.
Roughly 36 inches of fresh snow piled up in Rhode Island’s capital city of Providence. That’s 3 feet of fresh powder. But the highest amount reported by the National Weather Service even exceeds that total.
As of Tuesday morning, the weather agency’s map showed the highest amount of snowfall recorded at the Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, at 37.9 inches.
That amount surpasses the previous amount set nearly five decades ago during the historic Blizzard of ’78 by almost 10 inches, when 28.6 inches was the recorded accumulation over two days.
Monday’s snowfall also set a new record for the highest single-day snow total, according to the National Weather Service. The new record from Monday at more than 35 inches is nearly double the previous record set on Jan. 8, 1996, when 19 inches fell that day.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee declared a state of emergency Sunday evening and urged everyone to stay off the road due to dangerous conditions.
“Stay off the roads—I cannot stress this enough. Road conditions and visibility are still treacherous. Disabled tractor-trailers and cars divert critical resources from the storm response,” McKee said in a post on X shared Monday afternoon.
A statewide travel ban was in effect during the blizzard conditions. Rhode Island State Police reminded locals through the day Monday that all non-emergency travel was prohibited and said that drivers who violate the ban would be cited.
Rhode Island isn’t the only state that bore the brunt of the massive winter storm.
In total, the weather service issued blizzard warnings for New York City and Long Island, Boston and coastal communities in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. State of emergency declarations were issued in New York City and other parts of New York state, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The weather service referred to Monday’s storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone happens when a storm’s pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.
The record-setting snowstorm has prompted managers of The Boston Globe to call off printing their daily newspaper for the first time in its 153-year-old history.
Snow and winds prevented staff from safely getting to the Globe printing plant to print Tuesday’s paper, the newspaper said in an article on its website. Parts of Massachusetts’ Bristol County, where the Globe’s printing press in Taunton is located, recorded 32 inches of snow by Monday night, the National Weather Service said.
The Globe said it went to press during another record-setting blizzard nearly five decades ago, when it printed a few thousands copies of a Feb. 7, 1978, edition. Few papers actually made it to readers, however, because piles of snow prevented delivery trucks from getting farther than a mile or two from its building.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.