New Hampshire dodged the worst of the snowy nor’easter Monday, as it saw some coastal damage and slow travel but few major problems, unlike Massachusetts and points south, where hundreds of thousands of people lost power amid snowfalls of up to two feet and wind speeds topping 70 mph.
Most of the state was saved by a bout of dry air that came down from the north to “eat away at the leading edge” of the storm, said the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. There was almost no accumulation north of the Lakes Region.
Still, it was a real nor’easter, a centralized storm that moved up the East Coast and brought sustained high winds and more than 12 hours of constant precipitation.
The weather service referred to the storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter.” A bomb cyclone is a storm that drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours. Large drops in air pressure can lead to strong winds. Bomb cyclones have become more common in recent years, fueled by warmer water in the ocean due to climate change.
Throughout central and southern New Hampshire on Monday, schools, businesses and many government agencies closed. Speed limits on the Everett Turnpike, Route 101 ad the Spaulding Turnpike were lowered to 45 mph. A number of flights were canceled at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, while Logan Airport in Boston was almost shut down, with nearly 1,000 flights canceled, according to the flight tracker site Flight Aware.
Conditions were much worse farther south, with up to two feet of snow reported in southern New England. Power was out on most of Cape Cod, where wind gusts of 70 mph were reported, as well as in scores of locations throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island.
New York, New Jersey and coastal Pennsylvania were also hit hard and will be digging out for days.
