April nor’easter with heavy, wet snow pounds Northeast, knocks out power to hundreds of thousands
A major spring storm brought heavy snow, rain and high winds to the Northeast, downing trees and power lines and leaving nearly 700,000 homes and businesses without power at one point. A woman was killed by a falling tree in a New York City suburb and a second woman died in a New Hampshire fire caused by the weather.
Two feet of snow was expected in parts of northern New England by Thursday evening, with wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 97 kph) in coastal areas and inland, according to the National Weather Service. Moderate to heavy snow was forecast to continue in the evening and into Friday in areas of higher terrain.
Maine and New Hampshire bore the brunt of the power outages, with about 310,000 and 125,000, respectively, as of Thursday night, according to poweroutage.us. Local officials said the heavy, wet snow was to blame for bringing down trees and power lines.
“This was pretty much a classic nor’easter,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist for the weather service in Gray, Maine. “This is definitely a high-end storm for April. It’s not crazy for us to get snow in April, but not usually getting double-digit amounts.”
The weather service said it was the biggest April nor’easter to hit the region since 2020.
“Still reporting snow and wind here at the office, with 17.4 inches (44.2 centimeters) of snow for the event thus far here in Gray,” the service posted in the evening on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Over a foot of snow fell in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where some residents who lost power checked in at the Wolfeboro Inn, general manager Shawn Black said.
“This is a lot of heavy, wet snow,” he said. “And the wind is out of the northeast, so it’s really not nice in a sense of temperature-wise, especially when the speed gets up to gusts of 55 mph. While I was out on the snowblower I could really feel my forehead just go numb.”
Jane Phillips, who was cross-country skiing in her neighborhood in Portland, Maine, was relishing the weather.
“It’s special to get snow in April and to be able to get out and enjoy it,” Phillips said. “It’s fun being a Mainer.”
Heavy snow made travel treacherous in northern New England and New York, and numerous vehicle crashes were reported.
One temporarily shut down Interstate 95 northbound near Lewiston, Maine, on Thursday morning. In Windham, Maine, near Portland, a vehicle lost control and struck a police cruiser, but no one was injured.
The storm brought mostly heavy rain to southern parts of the Northeast, as well as high winds.
Late Wednesday afternoon, a tree fell on a vehicle and killed a woman in the hamlet of Armonk in New York’s Westchester County, police said.
In New Hampshire, Derry Fire Chief Shawn Haggart said a woman died and a young woman was hospitalized after a morning house fire Thursday that was sparked by an explosion.
Haggart said the state Fire Marshal’s Office concluded that a tree fell on the house near external propane tanks at a time when strong winds were knocking down branches and power lines.
