A spring storm has caused power outages across states in the north-eastern US, with more than a foot of snow falling in some places.
Some 300,000 customers lost electricity, 200,000 of them in New York state.
The snowfall caused multiple vehicle accidents in Pennsylvania, where up to 8 inches fell in some places, and parts of West Virginia and western Virginia and Maryland saw about 6 inches of snow, causing heavy traffic on highways in the region.
As far south as Virginia, residents who were looking forward to spring instead were greeted by wintry blasts while several other north-eastern states had winter storm warnings in place from the National Weather Service (NWS).
It was feared that heavy, wet snow could bring down tree limbs, with the NWS warning of wind gusts up to 40mph.
As a system moves onshore in the Northwest, high elevation snow and low elevation rain and storms will be likely.
Much of the eastern U.S. will remain mired within an abnormally chilly air-mass for mid-April through mid-week.
In addition to the cold, a Nor’easter will continue to produce periods of light snow in parts of the interior Northeast this evening along with gusty winds.
Additional snow accumulations between 3-6 inches are expected from northern Pennsylvania to the Adirondacks.
Lake effect snow downwind of Lake Erie may also produce accumulating snowfall greater than 8 inches in southwestern New York. Some pockets of measurable snowfall are also expected in parts of the central Appalachians today.
High pressure continues to build in from the west tonight and moves over the East Coast by Wednesday, making for a mostly dry but still relatively chilly day.
Locally, high pressure will gradually build into the New Jersey area from the southwest this evening into Wednesday. A dry cold front will pass through the area Thursday night. High pressure will return Friday then a frontal boundary will approach the area early next week.
By far and large, temperatures should remain mostly above freezing except over the Pocono Plateau and High Point, NJ, where radiational cooling will set up over the fresh snowfall.
Surface high pressure will shift offshore through the day Wednesday with much lighter winds beneath the ridge axis. Mid-level height rises will boost temperatures up a few degrees.
The abundant sunshine will also get to work on our temperatures, but we a have
quite a bit of ground to cover and highs will still top out some 5 to 10 degrees below average, but this is better than the 15 to 20 degrees below average we`re seeing today.
High temperatures Thursday will be mostly in the mid 60s with cloud cover increasing Thursday afternoon as the cold front approaches.
Thursday night, the cold front will ooze southeast through the region with dry conditions expected. Temperatures will be mostly near normal behind the front, with lows in upper 40s expected.
New York officials said people should try to stay off the roads if they can.
The New York state town of Binghamton set a two-day record for the month of April with 14.5 inches of snow as of Tuesday morning.
The town of Virgil, New York, reported 18 inches of snow, reaching the highest level of predicted snow fall.
Albany, New York, the state capital, experienced a phenomenon called thundersnow.
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