As a Nor’easter geared up to hit the Northeast, people hunkered down due to the likelihood of significant snowfall. But, the storm was more severe than some expected. It was upgraded to a bomb cyclone (as defined by Merriam Webster, a powerful, rapidly intensifying storm associated with a sudden and significant drop in atmospheric pressure) on Saturday, January 29. Some east coast communities received one foot of snow; others were met with more than two. Areas in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey all saw record amounts of snowfall. Sharon, Massachusetts got more than 30 inches.
High winds caused the number of power outages to skyrocket: 88,000 people were without power on Saturday night. That number dropped significantly the next day as workers all across the East Coast helped restore power in their communities, but there were still more than 15,000 outages on Sunday afternoon.
The temperatures were just as brutal. A deep freeze cut across the coast, along with the winds that blew snow every which way. About one million people in the Northeast received winter weather alerts on Sunday, but this was nowhere near the figure of 16 million people from Saturday night.
It was not a good weekend to travel. Road conditions were treacherous, and while efforts were made to keep roads clear, the large amounts of snow didn’t make it easy. Some vehicles crashed, including two tractor-trailers that got overturned on I-95 in New Rochelle, New York. In addition, nearly 1,000 flights were canceled on Sunday due to the conditions, and many more were delayed.
The storm caused CA to shutdown its campus on Saturday. Unfortunately, the second performance of the winter mainstage was delayed to Sunday, as opposed to its original Saturday date. Nevertheless, the campus was ready to go by Monday morning. While the storm didn’t have a huge impact on the CA community, it is important to remember all the people that were not as lucky. Mass power outages, delays, and destruction have left some communities far worse off than others.