One of the most powerful snowstorms in recent memory struck the New York Metro area last night into this morning, and it's impacts are still being felt throughout the entire area. The storm system had major impacts from the Mid-Atlantic states into the Northeast from Virginia to Maine. Coastal areas in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine all received over a foot of snow.  New Jersey stole the show last night as several bands of very heavy snow redeveloped continuously over the area for hours. Featured image: Radar loop showing the storm hammering the New Jersey, New York, Long Island area at 7:00pm December 26th, 2010.

Hundreds of people throughout Northeast New Jersey, Coastal New Jersey, New York City, and Long Island reporting seeing and hearing Thundersnow, a rare phenomena which requires very strong atmospheric dynamics and instability which is hard to come by in winter, let alone along the I-95 corridor of the Northeast. The banding that setup late Sunday night barely moved for a 6 to 8 hour period, setting up to be what many would refer to as a "megaband". The band was a result of very strong frontogenesis (strong forcing on the northwest fringes of a low pressure). And with the low pressure stalling and moving so slowly, the band had nowhere to go. Featured image: high resolution radar showing the "megaband" over Northeast New Jersey

These type of bands always present a very challenging forecast. Earlier in the week, model guidance was indicating the band would setup over Long Island. Then, the models lost the storm completely, showing a miss out to sea by more than a hundred miles. Finally, on Christmas Eve, all of the model guidance showed this major band near or over New York City. The band wound up in that area, and maybe a bit further west over Northeast New Jersey. The "megaband" was specifically hard on areas in Union, Essex, Hudson, Bergen, and Middlesex counties. In contact with members of the Fanwood Police department, one officer said "This has to be the most intense snowstorm we have seen in a very long time, if not ever. The 30 inches of snow combined with the strong winds are very dangerous."

He wasn't kidding. Winds gusted into the 40 to 50 mile per hour range all night, owing to the low pressure undergoing "bombogenesis" off the New Jersey Coast. Winds on Long Island reportedly gusted above 60 miles per hour at times. The low pressure dropped to Category 2 Hurricane strength off the coast. The satellite image to the left is very revealing--this storm system meant business. And for those of us still digging out, mother nature has left her mark and her message. We hope you can continue to send us your storm reports. We are still gathering the data and attempting to put together a re-analysis. All of our saved hi-resolution images and data will be made available to the public for archiving in the coming week. For now, see this latest list of snowfall totals. Featured image: Low pressure this morning, December 27th, looks like a hurricane, with a 963mb minimum central pressure..similar to that of a Category 2 Hurricane.