A powerful snowstorm belted the north-eastern United States on Sunday with flashes of lightning and whiteout conditions, forcing airports to close, snarling traffic and bringing joy to New England's ski resorts.
As much as 22.8 inches (57.9 cm) of snow fell in New York's central park, the second heaviest snowfall on record, topped only by a blizzard in 1947, said the National Weather Service.
"It is quite a storm," said Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's New York bureau. "And it's still going on. In some areas we're seeing snow fall at a rate of 10 inches (25 cm) in two hours."
Whiteout conditions shut airports from Boston to New Jersey and Washington D.C., the Federal Aviation Administration said, as the storm churned up the north-east coast from Virginia to Maine. Flakes of snow were reported as far south as Tennessee.
"The snow is beautiful," said Gary Aichholz, manager of Magic Mountain, a ski resort in Londonderry, Vermont, which like other ski mountains across New England had suffered from unseasonably warm weather and scarce snowfall. "I think this will get people back in the spirit of winter and skiing," he said. As much as 21.3 inches (54.1) had fallen in Columbia, Maryland and 19 inches (48.3 cm) in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, according to Accuweather.