Brutal winter storm dumped snow and ice from Texas to Maine

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features a massive winter storm that stretched nearly 2,000 miles across the United States.

According to NASA, the storm began on February 1 with a cold front surging from the Rockies to the Midwest and bringing extreme cold and heavy snowfall. By the end of the week, the system had dumped a mix of snow, freezing rain, and ice across more than dozen states from Texas to Maine. 

The National Weather Service reports that temperatures dropped 15 to 30 degrees below average across the Plains and Ohio Valley. 

NASA says that freezing rain and sleet covered roads and trees, brought down power lines and caused extensive power outages and hazardous travel conditions. Thousands of flights were canceled. 

Snowfall totals hit the double digits in dozens of cities. On February 4, wind chill and hard freeze advisories remained in effect for many areas.

When the brutal winter storm arrived, many places on the East Coast were still digging out from a blizzard that hit the last week of January.

The image was captured on February 3, 2022 by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer