Winter Storm Orlena Hammered the Sierra, Midwest and Northeast With Heavy Snow (RECAP)

Orlena began its cross-country journey in California as an atmospheric-river fueled Pacific storm wrung out feet of snow in the Sierra and other parts of the West, along with flooding rain. For full details on this part of the storm, click here.

Orlena then tracked into the Midwest over the final weekend of January.

Before Orlena's Midwest snow kicked into gear on Jan. 30, over 100 million Americans were covered by a National Weather Service winter storm watch, warning or winter weather advisory in the Midwest and Northeast.

Chicago's O'Hare airport picked up 10.8 inches of snowfall from Jan. 30-31. Combined with Winter Storm Nathaniel, it was Chicago's snowiest week in almost 6 years, according to the National Weather Service.

Parts of the Milwaukee metro area saw 8 to 10 inches of snow, making this their snowiest January in 16 years.

A corridor of northern Indiana from the northwest Indiana suburbs of Chicago to Fort Wayne picked up 8 to 10 inches of snow.

Beginning on Jan. 31, snow spread into the Mid-Atlantic states, then intensified that night into Feb. 1.

Parts of three states in the Northeast picked up more than two feet of snow in the storm, including eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey and southeast New York.

The storm's maximum snow total was 36.1 inches in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. We have a full state-by-state breakdown of snow totals at the bottom of the article.

New York City's Central Park had a storm total of 17.4 inches. That made it the 16th heaviest snowstorm on record there dating to 1869 and the first 1-foot-plus snowstorm, there, in five years.

Wind gusts at times over 30 or 40 mph produced near whiteout conditions in the lower Hudson Valley.

Allentown, Pennsylvania, had its second-heaviest snowstorm with 27.3 inches, which trailed only the Jan. 2016 snowstorm (31.9 inches in two days).

Snowfall rates as high as 3 inches per hour were observed during the height of the storm on Feb. 1.

The weight of this prolific snowfall caused the collapse of a bowling alley in Northampton, just north of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Even with more modest snow totals, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. picked up more snow from Orlena in a few hours' time than they measured all last winter season.

(MORE: Orlena Severely Impacts Travel in the Northeast)

Later on Feb. 1 into Feb. 2, heavier snow pushed into New England, up the Hudson Valley, and eventually pinwheeled back west into central New York and central Pennsylvania again.

Many locations in the Hudson Valley between Albany and New York City, central and western Connecticut, Massachusetts and southeast New Hampshire picked up at least a foot of snow.

An incredible west-to-east contrast in snowfall totals set up across eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as somewhat warmer air allowed more rain to fall along the south shore of Massachusetts to Cape Cod, compared to the much snowier western and northern suburbs of Boston.

Coastal Flooding, Winds

Coastal flooding inundated areas from Delaware to Maine over multiple high tide cycles with the slow-moving nor'easter that Orlena became.

Roads were inundated at high tide near Atlantic City, Belmar, Manasquan and Wildwood, New Jersey, and also at Howard Beach, New York.

Roads were inundated by coastal flooding on Groundhog Day in parts of eastern Massachusetts, including around Scituate. Coastal flooding prompted the closure of two northbound and southbound lanes of Morrissey Boulevard in Boston around high tide on Feb. 2, which is considered minor flooding in the city.

Widespread, damaging winds didn't occur with Orlena along the East Coast. However, a number of locations along the Jersey shore, Long Island and on Nantucket Island did record gusts over 50 mph. A 63 mph gust at Point Pleasant, New Jersey, was the strongest measured along the coast.

Top Snow Totals By State (Midwest, East)

For some peak snow totals while Orlena affected the West, click here.

Midwest

Illinois: 12.9 inches in Romeoville

Indiana: 11.5 inches near Valparaiso

Iowa: 8.5 inches near Midway

Michigan: 3.8 inches in Sturgis

Minnesota: 2.5 inches in Preston

Ohio: 8.7 inches near Fredericktown

Wisconsin: 13.5 inches in Racine

East

Connecticut: 19.4 inches near Torrington; 12.1 inches at Bradley Field near Windsor Locks

Delaware: 6.5 inches near Woodside

Maine: 15.5 inches in Salem; 7.8 inches in Portland

Maryland: 20.5 inches near Sabillasville; 4 inches at Baltimore-Washington Int'l Airport

Massachusetts: 24 inches in Lowell; 1.2 inches at Boston-Logan Airport

New Hampshire: 16 inches in Atkinson; 10.5 inches in Nashua

New Jersey: 35.5 inches in Mt. Arlington; 1 inch in Atlantic City

New York: 27.1 inches in Davenport; 8.3 inches in Albany

North Carolina: 10.2 inches near Marshall

Pennsylvania: 36.1 inches in Nazareth; 7.9 inches in Philadelphia; 7 inches in Pittsburgh

Rhode Island: 13 inches in Chepachet

Tennessee: 11 inches near Gatlinburg

Vermont: 17 in Woodford; 9 inches in Burlington

Virginia: 10 inches near Verona; 6 inches near Blacksburg; 3.2 inches at Reagan National Airport

West Virginia: 22.1 inches near Terra Alt

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