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NASA
NASA's Terra satellite snapped this image of snow blanketing the Northeast on Sunday.
By Becky Oskin
LiveScience
The aftermath of Saturday's massive snowstorm was spotted from space by NASA's Terra satellite on Sunday.
The snow started falling Friday when a frigid Arctic air mass from Canada collided over the Northeast with warm, moist air sweeping up from the South. Heavy snow combined with strong winds to create blizzard conditions, with more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow dropped in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine.
At its peak, the storm dumped 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow in an hour on Allentown, Pa.
The clouds had mostly cleared when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite snapped the winter wonderland stretching from Pennsylvania to Maine.
As of Sunday, Hamden, Conn., won the prize for the weekend's highest snowfall, with 40 inches (101 cm), Accuweather.comreported. While the total wasn't a record for Hamden, Portland, Maine, was buried in 31.9 inches (81 cm) of flakes, the greatest snowfall ever for the city.
Wind-driven snowdrifts blocked doors and built up sedimentarylike layers on windowsills, according to pictures and video posted online. Gusts over 60 mph (96 km/h) chilled residents from Maine to New York, according to Accuweather.com. In Portland and Westport, Conn., the winds topped more than 80 mph (128 km/h).
Commuters battling the snow won't get much respite, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS forecasts a much warmer storm system moving through the region Monday, with freezing rain.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Leave a Comment:
It is beautiful. And thankfully for me; all yours!
It does look cool, like that movie, With the ice and the, well i cant remember name, but it was an awful movie.
The Day After Tomorrow?
"At its peak, the storm dumped 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow in an hour on Allentown, Pa." What?!?! Pretty sure that is a meteorological impossibility, Becky.
Why would say that it is impossible?
Please .... tell us.
WHY is this news? It is wintertime. It comes every year. It snows every.
If you don't like the snow. move! But don't come down south & try to change everything to the way it is up there. If we wanted your way of life, we would move there! ENOUGH ALREADY
Tom, it is news because rarely does this much snow fall in one day over this great an area, particularly over the heavily populated NE corridor, thus affecting this many people.
And, yes, happily, many of us Northerners have moved down South and our kids will marry Southern kids and bread that way of life out of y'all!
Way of life? Like what, cousin sex?
what do you mean this much snow rarely ever falls in the NE corridor?
what planet have you been on?
it is early february and this is what it is supposed to do and all the aea's affected are the same exact ones that get slammed every time we have a nor easter not to mention it is the only significant storm we have had this year.
enjoy the south with all the hurricanes, pedophiles and inbreads.
Where is Al Gore??? Aint he going to blow the trumpet and pronounce that THIS is a direct cause of "Global Warming"..Oh yea, I forgot, he's too busy spending ALL that "oil money" he got from the Arabs for that "pussy" t.v. station that he was part owner of..I guess that fossil fuel crap that he keeps preaching, DOESN'T apply to HIM..Only to the "little people"
amen!!
Blade...what an ignorant comment.
Actually, Blade, these superstorms, like Sandy and Nemo are related to the warming of our planet. As oceans temperatures rise there is more condensation in the air - in other words, more water in our atmosphere. This water will fall either in the form or torrential rain or snow. Picture it like a bathtub full of water, you pull the plug and all the water flows out - all through one small opening. That is what is happening. All the water will flow out of the atmosphere, often in one location. So, instead of getting rain in the midwest, where we experienced drought for instance, this summer, there would be torrential floods in the Philippines or Russia. There are many markers, besides rising ocean temperatures that point to a warming climate. They include melting Arctic ice, which will cause a rise in the sea levels, warmer average air temps, higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and more. NASA scientist James Hansen writes more eloquently and scientifically on the subject, than I, so check out his book, Storms of my grandchildren for more information.
green, don't try to reason with them. You're wasting your time.
Only got twelve inches from that storm.The media hypes whatever they want.Like the way they over hyped obama.
Yeah.. um we got 35. Then another 6 today. Granted, we live in Maine and we expect this.. but it didn't make commuting Saturday morning at 6am in blizzard conditions over unplowed roads any easier. (and before you tell me I should have stayed home.. I am a nurse, can't exactly call out for weather).
Good lord, idiots can't even read a story about a weather event without twisting it into a political rant about the media and the president, pathetic.
Wank! Cry some more about you east coast babies, come to MN and experience a real winter...every single year. East coasterners are so infatuated with themselves.
Because we are better than you.Thats why.
The 15 deaths associated with this storm, in my opinion, make it somewhat newsworthy. Besides that, it set records up here in Maine. We are no strangers to winter weather.
It's a little more important when about a hundred million individuals are affected. Minnesotans are such crybabies, "wah, why aren't they talking about us?" Because you barely matter.
Awsome picture.
Interesting to see all the ice at the eastern end of Lake Erie. A great photo, so clear!
oh come on....Get over it already!! you had a snow storm....booo hoooo...do you need another 55 billion dollar "desaster relief fund"???? it looks like florrida is not the only one learning to milk the system. i live in alaska and we get snow like that all the time. no biggy.
No one cares about Alaska
Actually, temperatures in Alaska have been warmer than normal. Boasting that you are bigger and tougher, doesn't diminish that this was a pretty serious storm with a huge amount of snow falling in a very short period of time.
The more unusual the weather, the more newsworthy it is. If records are being set, its unusual.
what is wrong with the media now days...like chicken little, "THE SKI IS FALLING, THE SKI IS FALLING!!!
What's wrong with our schools nowadays, that nobody can spell . . . something to think about . . .
Maybe one of his bindings let go when he was on the chair lift.
ps, ever notice how we can only post comments about stupid stuff like this and the really liberal stories like gun control and higher taxes there is no comments on??? boy the liberal media "REALLY" does not like other peoples differing opinions. SENCORSHIP!!!
I guess Alaska doesn't have schools....at least ones that teach English...or Spelling. The rest of us are glad that you're in Alaska fix it man....please stay there.
well when you cant argue with a point, make fun of the poster. (liberal lameness 101) i freely admit i cant spell well....you mamby pamby wimps cant even handle a snow storm, and you are giveing me crap? lets see you handle 50 below with a 40 mile a hour wind and 5 feet of snow in one day. (if we did what you guys do we would have "desaster relief" every dam day of the year. what a bunch of pussies!
I have noticed the censorship.. I think it might be because people got totally out of control in the comments.
What is a sencorship? Is that an Alaskan vessel of some kind?
You live in Alaska, what the hell do you expect? If you had massive melting and flooding you would all be crying for help.
Beautiful. Makes me miss Colorado. Glad I'm in Louisiana, without shovels in my hands. LOL
Don't be so smug about being in Louisiana - in a few weeks when all the snow melts, the water will be coming down your mighty Mississippi . . . .then you will have paddles in your hands.
I was born and rasied back there ..... Pittsburgh to be exact.
Left there darn near 40 years ago. Experienced many snow events and ice storms back there. I tried out the Rockies for a spell and it was the same. Way too much shoveling for my taste.
The Pacific NW is where it's at for me. Just the right amount of seasonal change with out the hassle.
I sincerely hope you folks back there stay safe and my prayers go out to those that weren't.
Shhhh.....lets keep that to ourselves!
Get your boats ready. Spring is around the corner and so are the floods from snow melt and spring rain. Glad I live on the gulf coast. The only time we get flooded is when storm surge pushes water up under the house. At least I'm high enough up on stilts I can sit out on the deck and fish until the surge goes back out.
Among other reasons, this past weekend's storm and others like it in past years are why I moved from the Boston area to the West Coast in November 1986. Sure, I miss my family, old friends, and the Bruins/Red Sox/Patriots (I'm able to go and see them when they have games out here), but when "winter sux" is one's mantra for four or five months out of every year while living back there, one either shuts up or does something about it since nobody wants to hear the complaints.
Sure it is a lot of snow... we got upwards of 35 inches in my area of Maine. And I do think it is newsworthy, not sure what all the whining is about from the haters. Many places still have no school today because, especially in the cities, there just isn't anywhere to put the snow... we are used to that much snow on the ground, but all at once is tough! I'll tell you what was the most extreme part of this storm that though- the blizzard conditions. That snow was whipping around like crazy. We shoveled off a 4-5 foot drift from the roof of the house, one side of the car was buried, the other side was nearly bare!
You know what's extra cool? If you zoom WAY in on the picture you can see the path the tornado western MA had a few years back... it's like a big scar out there that is now filled with snow.
Why should I care about ten inches when I live with that for half the year in Montana?
There's alot of clouds showing. It's showing all of Maryland white, but we hardly got anything! And a reminder to everyone. It's winter, it's suppose to snow!
I live in Albuquerque and we are expecting 1/4 to a 1/2 inch tonight. That's enough to shut down our desert city for awhile.
Gods covering up all those obama bumper stickers!!! keep up the good work!
Global warming ...record snow storms....somene forgot to tell mothernature.