My first thoughts were: "Just like the Perfect Storm" which happened in October 1991. That one bombed out offshore, and then backed in from the Canadian Maritimes. It does happen. I can't recall it happening in winter before.
We came VERY close to an all-out blizzard, similar to '78, with this storm -- without knowing it. This thing spent more of its time offshore. But it still got stuck here for 2 or 3 days. It obviously had the power to dump 2-3 feet of snow, because that DID happen in parts of ME, NH, and VT, giving a solid foot of snow to a large part of Massachusestts, and at the same time, plowable snow to Rhode Island and Connecticut.
So, this took up a lot of space. It had a lot of moisture with it. There was enough cold air to keep it all as snow. It got very strong, with powerful winds. Like the Blizzard of '78, this storm also came during a "high" in the astronomical tide cycle, and its center lowered the air pressure over the ocean enough to create a bulge in the water ("storm surge") on top of that. Therefore, there was coastal flooding.
Long story short: This thing had everything it needed, and it put the pieces together. So why didn't we get a widespread Blizzard? Location, location, location. And timing. The Blizzard of '78 got its act together in highly organized fashion, as though it had attended a military academy for storms. Then it carried its mission out perfectly -- got stuck in "just the right place" to do what it did. This thing, by comparison, would've been yelled at, and made to do a few push-ups for being a little less organized than '78. It still got stuck for a similar period of time, but in a slightly different neighborhood of the ocean. It made for an interesting show of topographically enhanced (and reduced) snowfall, all over New England. It also brought the tidal floodng in places that wouldn't have flooded otherwise.
The moon is out now. Looks like boring weather, next few days. Sigh.
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