Blizzard of '26 Peaking This Morning; Southeast New England Hardest Hit

Satellite view this morning of the extreme nor'easter creating
the northeast blizzard. Note the eye-like feature of the
storm center, the cold front extending down through the
Bahamas and the bumpy look to the clouds in
southeast New England, which indicates very heavy snow

As expected the Blizzard of '26 raged all night and is still going strong. 

The only major change is that it made a slight jog to the south, so the northern fringes of the storm won't be as snowy as first thought. That affects us here in Vermont, but we were never going to get the brunt of this thing anyway. 

More on the Vermont forecast further down in this post. 

Southeastern New England and Long Island, New York seem to be the hardest hit places. Again, that was expected, but it's literally cold comfort to the people who live there. Or anywhere else affected by the blizzard.

As of 7:30 or so this morning, more tham 5,600 flights had been canceled today, according to FlightAware.com

Also as of 7:30 this morning, about 463,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast. That number will certainly rise as the storm continues to rage. 

This is still obviously a developing story and there will be much more. But let's break what we've got so far down by regions.

New York/New Jersey/Southern Connecticut

Montauk Point in eastern Long Island reported a wind gust of 84 mph. Stony Brook, Long Island peaked at 74 mph. Many gusts in the New York, metro area and New Jersey were in the 55 to 65 mph range.

Through 7 a.m. Quague New York, on Long Island had 23.5 inches of new snow. Islip, Long Island reported 22 inches of new snow. New London, Connecticut had 17 inches and the Bronx had 15 inches 20. Central Park also reported 15 inches of snow, the most in a single storm since 17.4 inches in 2021. It was still snowing as of 7:15 a.m, so Central Park will likely go over that 2021 total

 There were many reports of 12 to 16 inches in New Jers3ey. It was still snowing at 7 a.m., so those totals will go up. 

So far, about 126,000 customers had lost power in New Jersey and 21,000 or so in New York. 

We're still awaiting word on how severe coastal flooding has been. I did see some video of water entering streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I'm shore there is at the very least beach erosion on the Jersey Shore.

The snow should stay intense in this region until around mid-morning, when it should begin to tape off, west to east. The snow should move out entirely this afternoon, except maybe in central and eastern Long Island. Winds will stay strong and gusty, so the snow will keep blowing around.

Travel bans and states of emergency remain in effect today. 

New England Except Connecticut

Screen shot of WBZ-TV meteorologist Jacob Wycoff
enduring the blizzard blasting through 
Marshfield, Massachusetts this morning. 

The blizzard in southern and eastern New England was absolutely raging as of 8 a.m. today and the region has quite a few hours to go before it all ends.

Large areas of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts had whiteout conditions. In addition to the heavy snow, wind gusts in the 50 to 65 mph range w4re common. 

As of 7:15 a.m, 20.4 inches of snow had piled up in Exeter, Rhode Island. South Kingston, Rhode Island had 19 inches. As those reports came in, the heaviest snowfall was covering almost all of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts from about Boston south. 

Snowfall rates of three inches per hour in spots should continue through the morning. Eastern New England should have additional accumulations this afternoon. I'm sure some towns will report 30 or more inches of snow. 

Hourly weather reports from places that still had power were insane. At 8 a.m. Hyannis, Massachusetts reported heavy snow with winds gusting to 69 mph. Nantucket was gusting to 70 mph. Boston at 8 a.m. was reporting heavy snow with north winds at 38 mph gusting to 52 mph. The weather in Providence, Rhode Island was almost identical to Boston, except Providence was gusting to 63 mph .

The snow was pretty wet and heavy, especially south and east of a Boston to Providence line. What will amount to 1 to 2 feet of wet cement style snow propelled by wind gusts to near hurricane force in an area that is both fairly heavily populated and heavily forested means big trouble. 

I'm sure trees and power lines are being absolutely mowed down as I write this. Already, as of 8 a.m., 172,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses were without power and that number was noticeably rising. 

In some areas, residents have been warned that it could take day before power is restored. And while the blizzard rages, nobody can go out and start repairs. It's just too dangerous. 

Live video from Plymouth , Massachusetts showed whiteout conditions and powerful winds. The wet snow driven by those winds appear to have utility poles leaning ominously in some areas of Plymouth. There were still a surprising number of cars o the roads, though.  

On top of everything else, coastal flooding is likely from this all along the New England coast up into Maine.  

VERMONT EFFECTS

That slight jog southward in the path of this giant nor'easter is ensuring that the Green Mountain States is escaping with minor effects.

The storm is still far enough north to keep the winter storm warning going for Bennington and Rutland  counties. Even so, total snow amounts in southernmost Vermont have been cut back a little to 4 to 8 inches.

The National Weather Service have dropped winter weather advisories in Rutland and Windsor counties, as accumulations there will fall short of the 3 to 6 inches that had been predicted yesterday. tw

The rest of Vermont could still see an inch or two of snow, with little or nothing in the Champlain Valley. 

Honestly, that's OK. Most of Vermont is deep in snow, so we didn't need the disruption of a huge blizzard. I'll take today's blustery, cloudy weather with a bit of gratitude. 

The nor'easter will provide us with cold, stiff north winds gusting to 30 mph, so open areas could see a  few problems with blowing snow.

We'll really feel the cold air in the wake of the nor'easter tonight through tomorrow night with lows in the single digits and highs Tuesday barely making it to 20 if that in many areas.

A small system will probably throw a little snow at us Wednesday. Some forecasts had called for a more substantial snowfall this coming Friday, but that's definitely looking less likely.