Major Nor’easter produces hurricane-force gusts, up to 66 cm (24 inches) of snow and widespread outages across Northeast U.S.
A major Nor’easter that developed along the Mid-Atlantic coast on February 22, 2026, intensified explosively offshore and continued producing blizzard conditions across southern New England and the New York–New Jersey metropolitan region on February 23, with hurricane-force wind gusts, snowfall totals exceeding 60 cm (24 inches) in some areas, widespread power outages, and moderate to major coastal flooding.
Image credit: NOAA/GOES-East, RAMMB/CIRA, The Watchers. Acquired at 14:40 UTC on February 23, 2026
A major Nor’easter that developed along the Mid-Atlantic coast on February 22 rapidly intensified offshore and continued producing blizzard conditions from the DelMarVa Peninsula into southeastern New England on February 23, bringing very heavy snowfall rates, strong winds, and widespread power outages.
The latest Storm Summary issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center (WPC) reported the cyclone’s estimated central pressure at 964 hPa as it tracked east-northeastward about 225 km (140 miles) south-southeast of Chatham, Massachusetts.
Heavy snow and gale-force to hurricane-force wind gusts battered coastal southern New England, particularly southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Peak wind gusts reached 134 km/h (83 mph) at Nantucket, 124 km/h (77 mph) at Barnstable and Wellfleet, and 119–121 km/h (74–75 mph) in parts of Rhode Island, meeting hurricane-force criteria.
Blizzard Warnings remained in effect from the northern Delmarva Peninsula through New Jersey, Connecticut, southeastern New England, and coastal Maine.
Very heavy snowfall rates of 5–7.6 cm (2–3 inches) per hour continued in persistent snow bands pivoting across eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, while moderate to heavy snow extended across interior southern New England, New York City, and much of New Jersey.
Preliminary storm total snowfall reports through 15:00 EST on February 23 included 66 cm (26 inches) at Shirley Airport, New York; 61.5 cm (24.2 inches) at Freehold, New Jersey; 59.7 cm (23.5 inches) at Coventry, Rhode Island; and 50.8 cm (20 inches) in parts of Connecticut.
Widespread totals of 30–60 cm (12–24 inches) were reported from the Delmarva Peninsula through Massachusetts.
The combination of heavy snowfall and strong wind gusts of 64–113 km/h (40–70 mph), with higher hurricane-force gusts along exposed coastal locations, produced blizzard conditions and sharply reduced visibility, making travel extremely treacherous to nearly impossible across portions of the Northeast.
According to PowerOutage.us, a national utility outage aggregator, 662 177 customers were without power from New Jersey to New York and Massachusetts, as of 15:36 UTC on February 23.
The largest concentrations were reported in Massachusetts (264 236 customers without power, up from 258 002 just 15 minutes ago), New Jersey (130 308), Delaware (76 417), Rhode Island (41 448), Maryland (28 135), New York (21 965), and Virginia (15 720).
Using standard emergency planning multipliers based on average household size, this level of outage could correspond to roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million people affected.
Coastal Flood Advisories and Warnings remained in effect from Virginia to southern Maine. The WPC Storm Summary indicated moderate to major coastal flooding was forecast from Delaware to Cape Cod, including inundation of roads and property near waterfront areas.
Gale and Storm Warnings were also in effect for coastal waters along the East Coast.
Forecast guidance suggests the Nor’easter will continue tracking east-northeastward and gradually pull away from New England through February 24.
Heavy snow and high winds across southern New England and New Jersey are expected to diminish later on February 23, while coastal Maine may experience heavier snow and gale-force winds into the evening before the storm exits into the Canadian Maritimes.
An additional clipper system diving out of the Upper Great Lakes may bring further snowfall to parts of the Northeast from late February 24 into early February 25, including some areas currently experiencing heavy snow.
References:
1 Short Range Forecast Discussion – NWS/WPC – Issued 08:22 UTC February 23, 2026
2 Storm Summary Number 2 for Late February Nor’easter – NWS/WPC – February 23, 2026
3 Live U.S. Power Outage Data – PowerOutage.us – Accessed 15:20 UTC February 23, 2026
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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