Another Blizzard Piles Up the Snow in New England

Yet another potent winter storm battered the northeastern United States on February 14-15, 2015. The nor'easter brought 12 to 20 inches (30 to 50 centimeters) of snow across much of eastern New England, along with tropical storm force winds over 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour. The latest snowfall pushed Boston to its highest monthly total on record—58 inches and counting—and its third highest yearly snow total.

This image was acquired by the GOES-East weather satellite at 3:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (20:45 Universal Time) on February 15, 2015, as the storm was mostly out to sea. Note the comma-like shape of the nor'easter, which spawned blizzard conditions at coastal locations. The official meteorological definition of a blizzard is three consecutive hours of falling or blowing snow with winds gusting above 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour and visibility below one-fourth of a mile (0.4 kilometers).

As of February 17, the snow depth near Boston was greater than in all but two reported locations in Alaska. It was significantly higher than the notoriously snowy states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Only Buffalo, New York, had a higher snow pack.

On February 16-17, more snow and ice fell across the eastern United States from northern Mississippi all the way to Maine.

Read more: 1.usa.gov/19wR4LI

Via: NASA Earth Observatory

GOES image courtesy of the NASA/NOAA GOES Project Science team. Terra MODIS image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

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