Winter Storm Avery Dumps Heavy Early Season Snow in the Northeast and Stops New York City in its Tracks (METEOROLOGICAL RECAP)

Winter Storm Avery created travel gridlock in parts of the Northeast as its mess of snow and ice overspread the region, and has more snow left to dump in parts of New England after blanketing the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and East.

(IMPACTS: Avery Brings Northeast to a Standstill)

Avery was initially named with the expectation that winter storm warnings would be issued for at least 2 million people, and this criterion was reached when much of the mid-Mississippi region, including the St. Louis metropolitan area, and the central Appalachians were placed in warnings by late on the morning of Nov. 14. 

(MORE: The Science Behind Naming Winter Storms at The Weather Channel)

Winter Storm Avery developed in a deep dip of the jet stream over the mid-South of late on Nov. 13th and into the 14th, which swung northeastward into the Ohio River Valley late on the 14th. The feature that created snow and ice over the mid-South and Midwest, the upper-level portion of Avery, helped spawn the second phase of Avery, the near-surface level low pressure system over the western Atlantic. 

By rush hour on Nov. 15, conditions were rapidly going downhill in New Jersey, southern New York and southern New England as the surface low pressure system ramped up off the mid-Atlantic coast. 

That surface low pressure system crossed over southeastern New England and into the Canadian Maritimes on Nov. 16, bringing snow to northern New England and the eastern Great Lakes while warmer air flowed in from the south, turning snow over to rain over coastal sections of the Northeast. 

Here are a few of the bigger weather stories that followed Avery northeastward through the eastern half of the country, followed by the biggest snowfall totals in the states affected by this winter storm: 

Humble Beginnings 

The first accumulating flakes was observed early on the morning of Nov. 14 in the Monroe, Louisiana, metro area, smashing a long-standing record there.

According to the National Weather Service, 0.4 inches of snow was recorded at Monroe Regional Airport, shattering its record-earliest-in-season measurable snow by 10 days, previously occurring as early as Nov. 24, 1950.

Light snow was reported in Greenville, Mississippi, some sleet was reported in Tupelo, Mississippi, and sleet had mixed with drizzle briefly at the National Weather Service office near Jackson, Mississippi.

A mixture of sleet and snow contributed to dangerous roads, especially on bridges and overpasses, in northern Mississippi and in the Memphis, Tennessee, metro area during the afternoon of Nov. 14.

Memphis, Tennessee, picked up 0.6 inches snow, its snowiest November day in 27 years. 

Avery moved from the Ark-La-Miss region into the Ohio River Valley by late on Nov. 14. 

While snow was the predominant precipitation type on the northern side of Winter Storm Avery, a stripe of ice also caused big problems.  

Ice accumulations of one-quarter to one-third of an inch were reported in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, metro areas and in parts of northern and central Kentucky before temperatures warmed a bit above freezing Thursday morning.

Just under one-quarter inch of ice in trees and elevated surfaces was noted in Louisville, Kentucky, the city's first November freezing rain or freezing drizzle in almost 29 years.

About 2 to 5 inches of snow had fallen in most of the St. Louis metro, but some locations both in and just outside the metro area picked up 6 to 9 inches of snow.

Paducah, Kentucky, had its second-earliest-in-season one-inch-plus snowfall, bested only by an Oct. 30, 1993, snowfall, according to the National Weather Service.

New York City Shut Down

The snowfall forecast along the I-95 corridor, particularly around the New York City metro overperformed the forecasts which called for an earlier changeover to rain and caught many off guard.

New York's Central Park picked up 6.4 inches of snow Thursday before changing to rain Thursday evening. It was Central Park's second-heaviest day of November snowfall in records dating back to 1869, topped only by 9.0 inches on Nov. 30, 1882. 

(MORE: Why Avery Produced More Snow Than Expected in the New York City Area)

Avery was also the record earliest-in-season six-inch-plus snowfall in New York City, besting the previous record earliest such storm in 1938 by a whopping nine calendar days. There had only been four such November snowstorms in the Big Apple in almost 150 years of records. 

The heavy, wet snow in New York City added so much stress to still-leafy trees that some toppled onto the streets in Hell's Kitchen.

Other Notable Snowfall

The first measurable snow of the season also occurred in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metro areas on Nov. 15. Dulles International Airport reported 3 inches of snow, while 1.7 inches fell at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and 1.4 inches was measured at Reagan National Airport.

This was the most snow to fall in a November event in the Nation's Capital in almost 29 years.

Philadelphia International Airport received 3.6 inches of snow, its first measurable snowfall of the season as well. Only three other November snowstorms were heavier at the airport in records dating to 1940:

• Nov. 6-7, 1953: 8.8 inches
• Nov. 30, 1967: 4.9 inches
• Nov. 22-23, 1989: 4.6 inches

State College, Pennsylvania, picked up a whopping 10.3 inches of snow, their fourth heaviest November snowstorm in records dating to 1893, heaviest since 1995.

Thursday was the snowiest November day on record at Newark, New Jersey (6.4 inches), where records go back to 1931.

Winds and Tree Damage

Trees and power lines were downed on the morning of Nov. 15 due to ice in parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and trees and power lines were sagging due to ice accumulations in the high country of northwestern North Carolina. Ice accumulations up to a half-inch were reported near Boone, North Carolina, Thursday morning.

Winds gusted above 60 mph at Great Gull Island, New York (67 mph), Wellfleet, Massachusetts (64 mph), Nantucket (62 mph), Seaside Heights, New Jersey (61 mph) and Atlantic City International Airport Thursday night as low pressure near the East Coast intensified.  These strong winds topped a tree into a home in Middletown, New Jersey, just across the bay from Staten Island.

Snowfall Totals

Three dozen locations in northern Pennsylvania and New York state picked up at least a foot of snow from Avery, including Elmira and Poughkeepsie, New York, each reporting 12 inches.

Here are some peak snow and ice accumulations by state (totals listed are snowfall unless otherwise specified) as of late Thursday evening:

- Arkansas: 5.5 inches in Georgetown; 0.6 inch in Little Rock- Connecticut: 12.1 inches in New Fairfield; 7.9 inches at Bradley Airport near Windsor Locks- Delaware: 4.5 inches near Newark- Illinois: 7.5 inches near Kampsville; 5.3 inches in Springfield; 1.1 inches at Chicago-O'Hare Airport- Indiana: 3.5 inches near Chesterton; 1.5 inches of mixed ice near South Bend- Kentucky: 2.3 inches in Reidland; 0.28 inch ice in Covington; 0.25 inch ice in several areas of central/northern Kentucky- Louisiana: 0.6 inch in Dubach; 0.4 inch in Monroe- Maine: 11 inches in Perham; 7 inches in Fryeburg; 5.8 inches in Portland- Maryland: 10.5 inches near Frostburg; 1.7 inches in Baltimore (BWI Airport); 0.20 inch ice near Thurmont- Massachusetts: 9.5 inches in Princeton; 7.8 inches in Worcester; Trace to 3 inches in Boston- Mississippi: 0.2 inch in Cleveland- Missouri: 9.8 inches in Wright City; 2.9 inches at St. Louis-Lambert Int'l Airport- New Hampshire: 8.2 inches near Derry; 6.6 inches in Nashua; 5.5 inches near Concord- New Jersey: 10.5 inches in Randolph; 7.8 inches in Westwood; 6.4 inches at Newark airport; 0.05 inch ice in Trenton- New York: 15.5 inches in Warsaw; 10.1 inches in Syracuse; 6.7 inches near Albany; 6.4 inches in New York City (Central Park)- North Carolina: Up to 0.5 inch ice in Boone and on Grandfather Mountain- Ohio: 0.40 inch ice in Wilmington; 0.37 inch ice in Dayton; 0.16 inch ice in Cincinnati and Youngstown- Pennsylvania: 16 inches in Sweet Valley; 14 inches in Hawley and near Windber; 8.1 inches in Allentown; 3.6 inches in Philadelphia; 0.25 inch ice in Castle Shannon and near Dubois- Rhode Island: 9 inches in Burrillville; 6 to 7 inches in Providence- Tennessee: 2.5 inches near Jackson; 0.6 inch in Memphis; 0.20 inch ice in Cedar Hill- Vermont: 14 inches in E. Enosburg; 6.8 inches in Burlington- Virginia: 7.2 inches near Lovettsville; 3 inches at Dulles Airport; 0.5 inch ice near Vesuvius and Baywood; 0.30 inches of ice in Blacksburg; 0.10 inches of ice in Charlottesville- West Virginia: 10.1 inches near Keyser and New Creek; 8.5 inches in Martinsburg; 0.34 inches of ice in Stanaford

Photos from Winter Storm Avery, Nov. 14-16, 2018