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Historic snowfall cripples Northeast with more than three feet

Some locations top more than 40 inches
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NORTHEAST - A historic, monster snow storm pummeled the Northeast United States over the past two days! Snowfall rates of more than four inches per hour, along with gusty 40 mph winds, and several towns and cities picking up more than 40 inches!

The "noreaster" as it's called, is a strong low pressure system that travels up the East Coast, usually with strong winds and copious amounts of precipitation tapped from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. In this case, the impact was more than 60 million people with commerce coming to an almost grinding halt. Thousands of flights have been cancelled, hundreds of accidents across multi-states were reported, where the heaviest snow fell through Pennsylvania, New York, and into the New England areas of New Hampshire and Vermont.

This really was an incredible storm! The snow fell so fast and furious that a 125,000 square foot inflated sports dome in Binghamton, New York had collapsed under the weight of the thick, heavy snow. One person also died in a 66 car and truck pile up in Clinton County Pennsylvania along Interstate 80. See image below from the Pennsylvania State Police.

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Take a look at our feature snowfall map from the National Weather Service below. The heaviest swath of snow occurred right through the state of Pennsylvania and New York.

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The entire state of New York map can be found below with snowfall totals from the National Weather Service.

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Many locations across the Northeast United States picked up more snow from this storm than they did the entire season last year. The widespread snow totals were simply amazing. CLICK HERE to see the complete list of totals from multiple NWS offices. To give you an idea what three to four feet of snow may look like, take a look at a couple Twitter photos. Yes...there are cars under those mounds of snow. The first photo is from Alicia Bentley in Troy, New York. The second, from Robert Schrom in Albany, New York. Incredible...to say the least!

In contrast, our West Michigan forecast has been dry and quiet thus far this early winter season. Get the complete forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather. Have a pleasant weekend!