STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's been kind of snowy across the Northeast. Millions of people were forced to stay home, and states of emergency were declared by governors across the region. NPR's Sarah Ventre in New York has more on one of the worst snowstorms in years.
SARAH VENTRE, BYLINE: It's being called a bomb cyclone, which is when there's a rapid drop in pressure over a short period of time. And in this case, the temperature was just right for wet, heavy snow. It was so bad. There were blizzard warnings, high winds and massive snowfall.
Rhode Island got more than 3 feet, the most in a single snowstorm in state history. Parts of Long Island and New Jersey saw more than 2 feet. And on Monday, around half a million people dealt with power outages. On Cape Cod, the power could be out for days. This much snow made it hard for cities to keep up the pace of clearing the roads and dealing with fallout. Here's Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
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MICHELLE WU: Anything that's greater than about half an inch per hour is very, very difficult to maintain and keep up with in terms of our plows getting the pavement clear. We saw upwards of two inches an hour for several hours.
VENTRE: Travel across the region has also been a mess. According to the aviation analytics company Cirium, nearly 20% of flights were canceled on Monday. And flights have been canceled today as well. Amtrak service was also disrupted. Some New Yorkers were particularly disappointed about the storm because over the weekend, things had started to look up. Since the Northeast was hit in late January, it's been so cold that grimy, black, trash-coated snow and ice stuck around for weeks. And then this storm hit.
DEIRDRE COSSMAN: This is just on top of what didn't melt the last time. Like, it started to melt, and then it didn't. You know, since it was cold for so long, everything froze. So we haven't been away from the snow.
VENTRE: That's Deirdre Cossman. She was trudging through piled-up snow and slush on her way to walk her neighbor's dog in Lower Manhattan after her neighbor got stuck in LA.
COSSMAN: There's a lot of climbing over things. I haven't had these boots out all season.
VENTRE: Despite all of this, some people couldn't help but smile. New York City had its first old school snow day in years. There were snowball fights in Washington Square Park. Tourists stood in the middle of the street in Times Square with no one around to bomb their photos. And New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani encouraged everyone to stay home.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I know that this is a city full of people who do not like to sit still, and yet I am asking you to do just that. Turn on that crackling fireplace YouTube video, call that relative whose WhatsApp you haven't responded to, make an enormous pot of soup and bring some to your neighbors upstairs.
VENTRE: For now, the storm has passed. But digging out could take a long time. Sarah Ventre, NPR News, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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