Explained: Nor’easter that battered US East Coast with deep snow and powerful winds

A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the United States’ East Coast over the weekend leaving people to shovel out heavy show — that made travel nearly impossible — and left a bitter cold in its wake.

One of the strongest winter storms in years, it triggered severe weather alerts, transport chaos and power outages across a region of some 70 million people.

Five states — New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia — declared an emergency, some areas of Massachusetts saw as much as 2.5 feet (75cm) of snow, with locals told to hunker down inside and nearly 6,000 US flights were cancelled across the weekend.

We try to understand what happened to cause such severe weather conditions and how the US is coping with it.

What’s a nor’easter?

The severe cold conditions were caused by a nor’easter — a storm along the East Coast of North America.

It is called so because the winds over the coastal area are typically from the northeast. These storms may occur at any time of year but are most frequent and most violent between September and April.

According to weather experts, Nor’easters begin to form within 160 kilometres of the coast that stretches between New Jersey and Georgia. This area is a perfect spot for the formation of storms. The polar jet stream blows cold air southward out of Canada and eastward toward the ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean is warm, thanks to the Gulf Stream — a warm ocean current.

Where the cold air and warm water meet, a low pressure system forms. The low pressure system causes clouds to form and a storm to develop.

As per USA Today, the last notable nor’easter to hit the Northeast was in October. The storm hammered the area with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, leaving more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power at one point.

As per experts, the storm will undergo bombogenesis, which means that colder air is expected to mix with warmer sea air. This will lead to a drop in atmospheric pressure, further leading to a bomb cyclone.

Storm pummels US

The storm dumped snow from Virginia to Maine, but Massachusetts bore the brunt of the fury, with neighbouring towns of Sharon and Stoughton getting more than 30 inches (76 centimetres) of snow.

According to an Associated Press report, more than 100,000 lost power at the height of the storm, mostly in Massachusetts. That had dropped to about 35,000 by Sunday afternoon, mostly on hard-hit Cape Cod. No other states reported widespread outages.

Authorities on Long Island reported three storm-related deaths. Suffolk County police said an elderly man fell into a swimming pool while shovelling snow in Southhold and was pronounced dead after resuscitation attempts failed. Nassau County officials said two men aged 53 and 75 died in the town of Syosset while shovelling snow.

The National Weather Service said that Boston received record snowfall on Saturday, of 23.6 inches (60 centimetres). In 2003, Boston had the worst snowfall of 27.6 inches (70 centimetres).

Some school districts also announced that classes were cancelled on Monday to allow for snow removal, including Attleboro and Quincy schools in Massachusetts. Warwick, Rhode Island, schools also went remote on Monday to accommodate snow removal.

The storm also caused a massive disruption in air travel. Flight tracker FlightAware said that some 3,400 flights had been cancelled for Saturday traveling within, into or out of the United States. Another 1,411 were cancelled on Sunday, showed the website.

The LaGuardia Airport and the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and the Boston Logan International Airport each had more than 200 flight cancellations as of early on Sunday.

With inputs from agencies

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