Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK – Arriving in a blaze of thunder and lightning and dropping staggering snowfalls from Virginia to Maine, the Nor’easter of 2006 roared up the East Coast Sunday, staging a spectacular show that shocked a region lulled by the mildest winter in years.

“For those of you who thought snow would never arrive – you were wrong,” deadpanned Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York. In fact, the storm, delivering 26.9 inches, broke New York City’s previous record for a single snowfall, 26.9 inches, set in 1947.

Up and down the Eastern seaboard, white-out conditions prevailed for hours as high winds and low temperatures created Arctic landscapes of sculpted drifts dotted with pedestrians in parkas and kids on sleds. Because the storm hit on the weekend, it caused more delight than disruption. And it was greeted with barely concealed glee by the 24-hour cable news channels, including CNN, which quickly wheeled out its “Severe Weather Headquarters” logo.

No question, the weather was severe – but it wasn’t quite a blizzard, according to the National Weather Service. In order to be a blizzard, a storm must generate snow heavy enough to limit visibility to a quarter-mile or less for three straight hours and produce winds of 35 mph or more during those three hours. Sunday’s Nor’easter apparently flunked the wind test.

Nonetheless, it was a really, really big snowstorm. The nation’s capital, empty of commuters and government workers, found itself transformed into a largely vacant, white-blanketed playground for the young and young of heart. Near the Naval Observatory, home to Vice President Dick Cheney, a line of sledders formed along the edge of a steep hill, where a steady stream of colorful stocking-caps and puffy parkas were hurtling downward.

The storm delayed first lady Laura Bush’s flight home from Turin, where she had attended the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. So, President Bush went alone to Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, just across from the White House, with only about 22 other worshippers for company.

The snow brought misery for the thousands of travelers who found their flights canceled. People were stranded not just at the major airports crippled for all or part of the day – including Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark in the New York City area and Reagan in Washington – but at airports around the country due to the ripple effect on air traffic.

And, with the heavy, wet snow and up to 60 mph winds snapping tree branches and power lines, thousands more found themselves with no electricity in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland, where the Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. reported more than 80,000 customers without service.

In the Boston area, where an estimated 16 to 24 inches was expected by the time the storm ended Sunday night, high winds sent waves crashing against coastal barriers and threatened flooding. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency and closed public schools on Monday.

But in New York City, public schools will be open on Monday. “I’ve been here 20 years. I can’t remember anything this big for a long time,” said Dorothy Canty, a schoolteacher, walking through her Brooklyn neighborhood with her daughter Kamani, 5. “I just wish it would keep snowing so I wouldn’t have to go to work tomorrow,” said Canty. But by dusk, the snow had stopped in New York City.

But for most of Sunday, in New York and points north, the snow just kept coming, fast and furious. It seemed even more remarkable at the tail end of a previously balmy winter when many ski resorts had despaired of ever seeing fresh powder and gardeners had begun to fret about tender crocus and other plant shoots peeking up 2 inches from the earth nearly two months too early. Indeed, less than 24 hours before the snow arrived in Washington, one downtown restaurant was serving dinner, under heat lamps, on outdoor terrace tables that Sunday were buried in snow.

“It’s just too much, too much,” said Kevin Brandenburg, an engineer, walking Sheba, his 9-year-old greyhound, in Manhattan.

“A couple of inches for the kids is OK, but this is totally unnecessary,” said Brandenburg, 32.

Big snow

As of Sunday afternoon, 27 inches had been recorded in Fairfield, Conn. And at least 21 inches of snow had fallen in Columbia, Md., East Brunswick, N.J., Hartford, Conn., and West Caln Township near Philadelphia.

North of New York City in suburban Westchester County, the main shopping district in the village of Pelham was practically deserted Sunday afternoon. A large supermarket, among other retailers, stayed dark, but the local video store, mercifully for parents of cabin-fevered kids, was open.

“We’re all set,” said one beleaguered mother, shepherding two young boys and clutching four DVDs as she left the store – enough to last through the evening and maybe even through a snow day on Monday.