Photos: CH Buried in Wet Snow in Rare October Storm
An unusually early and powerful nor’easter dumped wet, heavy snow Saturday on parts of the mid-Atlantic region, and it weighed down or toppled leafy trees and power lines to knock out power to 1.7 million as the storm headed toward New England.
Communities inland were getting hit hardest, with eastern Pennsylvania serving as the bull’s-eye for the storm, said National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro. Some places got more than half a foot of snow, and towns near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border saw 10 inches fall. And New York City’s Central Park set a record for both the date and the month of October with 1.3 inches of snow by midafternoon and more falling.
More than 1.7 million customers lost power from Maryland north through Massachusetts, and utilities were bringing in crews from other states to help restore it. Half a million were without power in New Jersey, including Gov. Chris Christie, who declared a state of emergency. Throughout the region, officials had warned that the early storm would bring sticky snow on the heels of the week’s warmer weather and could create dangerous conditions.
And the storm was expected to worsen as it swept north. The heaviest snowfall was forecast for later in the day into Sunday in the Massachusetts Berkshires, the Litchfield Hills in northwestern Connecticut, southwestern New Hampshire and the southern Green Mountains. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph were predicted especially along coastal areas.
“This is more like a February-type situation,” Vaccaro said.
The snow was difficult for business, too, said Gary Warn, an owner of the Hen House Restaurant in Frostburg, Md.
Lunchtime was “dead empty,” he said, and he wasn’t optimistic about dinner reservations.
“As I’m looking out the window right now, the damage is already done. I don’t know,” he said Saturday afternoon.
The storm disrupted travel along the Eastern Seaboard. Several airports had hours-long delays Saturday, including Philadelphia’s and two that serve New York City, Newark Liberty and Kennedy. The smaller airport in Teterboro, N.J., was briefly closed. Amtrak suspended service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., and commuter trains in Connecticut and New York were delayed or suspended because of downed trees and signal problems.
Residents were urged to avoid travel altogether. Speed limits were reduced on bridges between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A few roads closed because of accidents and downed trees and power lines, and more were expected, said Sean Brown, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Some said that even though they knew a storm was coming, the severity caught them by surprise.
“This is absolutely a lot more snow than I expected to see today. I can’t believe it’s not even Halloween and it’s snowing already,” Carole Shepherd of Washington Township, N.J., said after shoveling her driveway.
The storm came on a busy weekend for many, with trick-or-treaters going door-to-door in search of Halloween booty, hunting season opening in some states and a full slate of college and pro football scheduled.
Fans in State College were making the most of what school officials said was the first measurable snowfall for any October home game since records began being kept in 1896. The crowds were thinner, but “the die-hards are here,” said T.J. Coursen of Centre Hall, an alum, as a steady heavy snow fell.
“I never thought about not going,” said sophomore Tim Tallmadge. “You only get to be in the student section for four years.”
The snow failed to deter the travel plans of Dave Baker, who’s been going to Penn State football games for 45 years and made the 200-mile drive from Warminster, outside Philadelphia. He merely adjusted his packing list: Out went the breakfast fixings — his group ate early at a restaurant rather than at the tailgate — in stayed the burgers and hot dogs. And the cold came in handy.
“I didn’t have to buy as much ice for the beer,” he said.
Elsewhere outside the stadium, 11-year-old Cody Carnes of Pittsburgh made a large snowball as he sweated underneath five layers of clothes — a rain slicker, coat, sweat shirt, T-shirt and thermal. Another fan wore a foam Donkey Kong costume headpiece as he walked to a tailgate.
“It keeps my head nice and warm,” explained Matt Langston, 25, a graduate student from Harrisburg.
In eastern Pennsylvania, snow caused widespread problems. It toppled trees and a few power lines and led to minor traffic accidents, according to dispatchers. Allentown, expected to get 4 to 8 inches, is likely to break the city’s October record of 2.2 inches set on Halloween in 1925.
Philadelphia was seeing mostly rain, but what snow fell coated downtown roofs in white. The city was expected to get 1 to 3 inches, its first measurable October snow since 1979, with a bit more in some suburbs, meteorologist Mitchell Gaines said.
The last major widespread snowstorm to hit Pennsylvania this early was in 1972, said John LaCorte, a National Weather Service meteorologist in State College.
“It’s going to be very dangerous,” he said.
Southern New Jersey was soaked with heavy rains and winds that ranged from 20 to 35 mph, while northern communities awaited the arrival of 5 to 10 inches of snow. Jersey Central Power & Light, which was heavily criticized for being too slow to restore power following Hurricane Irene, had hundreds of workers set to be deployed.
Parts of New York saw a mix of snow, rain and slush that made for sheer misery at the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City, where drenched protesters hunkered down in tents and under tarps as the plaza filled with rainwater and melted snow.
Technically, tents are banned in the park, but protesters say authorities have been looking the other way, even despite a crackdown on generators that were keeping them warm.
“I want to thank the New York Police Department,” said 32-year-old protester Sam McBee, decked out in a yellow slicker and rain pants. “We’re not supposed to have tents. We’re not supposed to have sleeping bags. You go to Atlanta, they don’t have it. You go to Oakland, you don’t have it. And we got it.”
October snowfall is rare in New York, there had been just three October days with measurable snowfall in Central Park since record-keeping began 135 years ago, according to the National Weather Service. The fourth came Saturday, when about 1.3 inches had fallen by midafternoon.
Along the coast and in such cities as Boston, relatively warm water temperatures could keep the snowfall totals much lower, meteorologist Bill Simpson said, with 1 to 3 inches of snowfall forecast along the I-95 corridor. Washington was expected to get just a dusting.
But October snow records could be broken in parts of southern New England, especially at higher elevations, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said. The October record for southern New England is 7.5 inches of snow in Worcester, Mass., in 1979.
Rain and snow were due to begin falling on Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine during the day, with the heaviest snow falling overnight. Parts of southern Vermont could receive more than a foot.
The first measurable snow in New England usually falls in early December, and normal highs for late October are in the mid-50s.
But not everyone was lamenting the unofficial arrival of winter.
Two Vermont ski resorts, Killington and Mount Snow, started the ski season early by opening one trail each over the weekend, thanks to the recent snow and cold. Maine’s Sunday River ski resort also opened for the weekend.
In State College, 14-year-old Mac Charvala and his brother Will, 10, of South Orange, N.J., were using new boogie boards to slide along an inch of slushy snow covering a parking lot, where a slow trickle of cars left plenty of space for them.
“We’ve never been to a snow game before,” said their father, Mike. “It’s an adventure. If you don’t want to have fun, stay home.”
I wonder...
What Al Gore has to say about global warming now, ha ha.
CH
Where, wheres the global warming we were promised?
Went to College
To 1 & 2: This IS a result of global warming. Warmer oceans = bigger and more frequent storms. It’s very basic science.
typical
typical for the ultra smart 770 bochurim walking around in this weather wothout coats.
DeClasse- Intellectual
Where was the snow removal or clean up?????? Once again the city was on the job
Massachusetts has declared already a state of emergency
Oh the joy, wonders and non-senic beauty of the East Coast when it snows especially in New York
Milhouse
#3, Um, no. We’re on to that trick. Whatever happens, you people claim after the fact that it’s the result of this non-existent warming, and that it’s “basic science”. If it’s such basic science why didn’t you predict more snow *before* it happened? Why were you people predicting that snow would become a rarity, that kids would grow up not knowing what snow was? You don’t get to reverse yourselves now.
Just tell me what would *disprove* “global warming” to you? If it can’t be disproven then it’s not science, it’s religion. Which is the truth — environmentalism is at its core a form of avoda zara.
By the way, did you hear that Algore’s “high school science” experiment was not only faked, but DOES NOT WORK?
To #3
I guess college didn’t teach you about the aibershter. There is no such thing as global warming. Everything is from the hand of G-d.
It says in seforim that as Moshiach comes closer, all the natural events in the world will become increasingly unnatural. Not everything is a science, that is what you learn in college. Life will teach you otherwise.
Arieh
To set the record straight, Global Warming implies erratic weather patterns and climatic anomalies. It does not mean that suddenly, everyday our average temperature will increase.
That’s the technical aspect of the issue. If HaShem wills it to snow in middle-July, so be it; that’s the Ratzon of HaShem.
This is what and why we pray specifically pray for Geshem on Shmini Atzeret — L’Bracha v’lo L’Klalla, etc…; that we should not be inundated with severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, etc…, or Chas V’Shalom, draughts.
B H we dont have yet!
I dread the snow!!
Montreal-er
lol I love when it snows in N.Y. and the whole city shuts down :D
Milhouse
#8, weather is *always* erratic, and so is climate. If any change in the weather, in any direction, is cited as “proof” of this theory then it is automatically discredited.
TO THE NEW YORKERS
YOU’RE SO LUCKY!
Arieh
To Milhouse: You are correct. Weather is erratic. But I said that the pattern itself would also be erratic. I did not say this as a “proof” to G.W. I said it implies different patterns. Implications are not proofs.
Milhouse
#13, Blah, blah, blah. What will you accept as *disproof* of your theory? If the answer is nothing, then the theory is discredited.
Milhouse
To #3 and his ilk, who claim now that heavy snowfall is the predicted result of global warming: Here is what the “Union of Concerned Scientists” (one of the leading conglomerations of socialists masquerading as scientists) had to say as recently as 2007, in this paper: http://www.climatechoices.o…
“Since 1970 the [U.S.] Northeast has been warming at a rate of nearly 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) per decade. Winter temperatures have risen even faster, at a rate of 1.3°F per decade from 1970 to 2000. This warming has been correlated with many other climate-related changes across the region, including… Less winter precipitation falling as snow and more as rain… All of these observed changes are consistent with those expected to be caused by global warming.”
Now this is what they said this year: “..our temperatures are increasing faster during the winter season than during the summer season. So that creates a situation when you have more moist conditions – it’s still below freezing – you can create very heavy snowfall. If you have very extreme cold, cold, cold conditions, you tend to have a little bit less precipitation in the form of snow. So ironically, we get a little more snow as we’re warming up the planet.”
It’s amazing how everything changed in a mere four years! The bottom line seems to be that whatever happens is caused by global warming, and has the same solution: economic suicide by the West.
Milhouse
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia , “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,”
David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes – or eventually “feel” virtual cold.
Professor Jarich Oosten, an anthropologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, says that even if we no longer see snow, it will remain culturally important.
“We don’t really have wolves in Europe any more, but they are still an important part of our culture and everyone knows what they look like,” he said.
Milhouse
“The North American snowmobiling industry (valued at US$27 billion) (ISMA, 2006) is more vulnerable to climate change because it relies on natural snowfall. By the 2050s, a reliable snowmobile season disappears from most regions of eastern North America that currently have developed trail networks (based on the CGCM1 and HadCM3 GCMs with IS92a emissions, the PCM GCM with B2 emissions and the CCSR GCM with A1 emissions) (Scott, 2006; Scott and Jones, 2006).”
From here:
Milhouse
George Monbiot in 2005:
“Winter is no longer the great grey longing of my childhood. The freezes this country suffered in 1982 and 1963 are – unless the Gulf Stream stops – unlikely to recur.”