NYC was forecast go get around a foot, and Central Park received 11 inches. That's not exactly a bust, but it isn't the stuff of dreams, either. Portland, Maine has received the largest single-storm accumulation on record at 29 inches, breaking the old 1979 record. Milford, Connecticut has received 38 inches so far, and the storm isn't quite over yet. Reaching the 40 inch mark is not out of the question. Parts of Long Island have received 27 inches.
Hamden, Connecticut was at 34 inches a few hours ago, and that was almost exactly 24 hours after the snowstorm began. The previous record for a 24-hour snowfall was 30 inches set in 1969, so I'm pretty confident that Hamden's 34 inches sets a new record.
Lastly, there's quite a gem. Hartford has received 22.3 inches, making this blizzard the second-heaviest storm of all time. The heaviest storm of all time was 24 inches on January 12, 2011. For some reason I really love it when recently-set records are challenged or broken.
Also, last night there was one place in Connecticut (can't remember where) that received 12 inches in 2 hours, yielding an incredible snowfall rate of 6 inches per hour. The snowfall report was "official". I can well believe it, since there were other reports of very high snowfall rates, and I can't remember heavier radar returns for nor'easter-type snow. If the 6 inches per hour rate is official, I'm pretty sure it would set a new lower 48 record for the heaviest snowfall rate outside of lake-effect and upslope zones.
Last night it was pretty crazy because some guy on AmericanWx from Western Mass. was experiencing 3 inch per hour snowfall rates, and he wondered if he was in the deformation band. At the time the real deformation band was over 100 miles away
(that's where the 6"/hr rates were). As an aside, the scenes from Long Island were reminiscent of Lakeshore Drive (from Feb 2011). Also, there was a report of damaging winds on Long Island concurrent with thundersnow, yielding what can only be described as a severe thunderstorm with snow. Now that is incredible. "Crazy weather" is way overused these days, but I think the phrase perfectly fits this blizzard.
Combined with the hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions that were reported, it's been an awesome storm. I'm sure the first Blizzard of 2013 will be long remembered*.
*I say first blizzard, since the old practice of "Blizzard of ####" falls short now that there is typically multiple notable blizzards in a calendar year. When you refer to the "Blizzard of 2010", I have to ask "which one?".
Since this is the most severe blizzard in New England in at least 30 years, perhaps you could call it the "Great Blizzard of 2013", though this may be premature considering that there's always the possibility of an even more powerful system overshadowing it later in the season.
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