A severe snowstorm has caused confusion on the East Coast of the United States and Canada. Nearly half a million homes were without power Friday night (local time), according to the website poweroutage.us. The US Weather Service reported on the X site (formerly Twitter) that Gray (Maine) had received about 44 centimeters of snow as of Thursday evening.
And further south in the states of New York and New Jersey, “heavy rain” has already fallen on Wednesday, according to ABC News. A man has died after a tree fell on his car in suburban New York City, police said.
In Canada, hundreds of thousands of people were temporarily without power Thursday, CBC Broadcasting reported. In the megacity of Montreal in the southern province of Quebec, trees and power poles were brought down by the blizzard. Hundreds of schools were closed on Thursday as well. According to US media, classes were also canceled in many parts of the US Northeast.
The U.S. Weather Service announced Thursday evening that the blizzard known as a “nor'easter” has now weakened to a large extent. Up to eight centimeters of snow could fall on Friday. The weather phenomenon “noreaster” describes storms moving from the northeast into the Atlantic provinces of Canada and the northeastern United States. Nor'easters occur when warm ocean air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cold polar air off the coast of New England.
Although many people are surprised by the winter weather, snow in April is not unusual in the northeastern United States, the New York Times quoted an expert from the US Weather Service. The weather has been unusually mild this winter. “People might have gotten a little too comfortable.”
