Latest NE Snowstorm and Ridiculous Season Totals

The latest snowstorm in the eastern United States has brought widespread, heavy snow from Washington, D.C., through Massachusetts. According to our news story, 7,000 flights were cancelled and daily snowfall records were broken in several cities. Here's a map of the snow totals:

It was the first snowstorm to hit D.C. in three years, but obviously not in other major cities in the Midwest and Northeast, which have seen more than twice their normal snowfall through this date. The snow totals are approaching ridiculous levels:

Blog reader Ralph sent this graphic showing how Bridgeport, Conn., has already surpassed the entire decade of the 1980s when it comes to snowfall, and we're only halfway through the decade (and the winter, for that matter)! Philadelphia has done the same with the 1950s, he said.

Here's what the snow looked like from the MODIS satellite when the clouds cleared off this morning (2D):

One neat thing you can see in that photo is what's left of lake-effect snow clouds in North Carolina. Here's an explainer by the National Weather Service in Raleigh:

Snow fell in northeast North Carolina all the way to the Outer Banks:

There were few (perhaps no credible) thundersnow reports from this storm because it didn't get strong enough to produce thunderstorms until the nor'easter formed offshore (possible bombogenesis). It did drop over 25,000 lightning strikes on the ocean's surface: