Deadly storm slamming Northeast disrupts travel and knocks out power to half a million

A powerful, deadly storm that's dumped several inches of snow across New England and other parts of the U.S. Northeast disrupted travel and caused widespread outages into Friday morning.

The big picture: Well over foot of snow has fallen in parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and over 290,000 customers had no power in Maine alone, with nearly 122,00 in the dark in neighboring New Hampshire early Friday.

---

• The storm is unusual for its intensity and placement so late in the year, with cold air allowing snow and ice pellets to be observed into Massachusetts.

Threat level: Winds were howling across multiple states, from the Midwest to Downeast Maine, and this, combined with wet snow, was bringing down trees and power lines throughout Thursday.

• Falling trees were linked to at least four deaths in separate incidents in New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
• Thousands of flights were canceled and about half a million customers were without power across six states, with outages mounting in New England.
• "Stay off the roads if you can as tree limbs are still snapping!" warned the National Weather Service's office in Gray, Maine, via X on Thursday.

Snowfall reports received as of 4 pm Thursday. Highest totals so far by state:
ME - Shapleigh 21.5"
VT - Stowe 20"
NH - South Tamworth 18.5"
NY - Altona 17"
MA - Savoy 9.2"
CT - Norfolk 3.5"
PA - Uniondale 3"
NJ - Highland Lakes 2.3"
WV - Davis 2"
NC - Faust 2"
VA - Whitetop 2" pic.twitter.com/uzuUOkXUsE

— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) April 4, 2024

By the numbers: Winds have gusted to 73 mph in Wellfleet, Mass. on Cape Cod, 55 mph in Bar Harbor, Maine, and 57 mph in Rutland, Vermont.

• Winds were forecast to stay strong throughout Thursday, as the center of the storm wobbled northeast into the Gulf of Maine.

Context: This is the same overall storm system that trekked across the country this week, bringing severe thunderstorms to the Central U.S. and Midwest.

• The snow, combined with heavy snow that fell in some of the same areas last week, ensures that many people flocking to Burlington, Vt. and northern Maine to see the total solar eclipse will view it with an unusually wintry backdrop.

What's next: The deep upper-level trough will slowly move off the Northeast Coast over the coming days, per a Friday morning NWS forecast discussion.

• But the associated low pressure system that's caused the massive dump of snow over parts of the Northeast "will linger around Downeast Maine over the next couple of days, spreading snow showers across the state and surrounding areas."

Early Spring Day in Maine! The office has just passed 15" of snow for the storm and still snowing heavy. There are trees down all over the place and its difficult to travel on any side road. Don't travel if you don't have to as it is very dangerous at this moment! #nhwx #mewx pic.twitter.com/LFLCIf6nW7

— NWS Gray (@NWSGray) April 4, 2024

Editor's note: This a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.