Northeast US Declares Emergencies as Potent Winter Storm Hits Region

A significant low-pressure system generated the season's first major winter storm across the Northeastern United States, beginning Tuesday, December 2, and continuing into Wednesday, December 3, 2025. The National Weather Service (NWS) elevated alerts to winter storm warnings across key states, including New York, Massachusetts, and Maine, as the system showed potential for rapid intensification into a bomb cyclone.

The storm's arrival followed an earlier period of disruptive weather in the Midwest, where Chicago O'Hare International Airport recently recorded a November single-day snowfall record exceeding 8 inches, surpassing a mark set in 1951. In the Northeast, localized projections indicated that specific sectors of New York State could receive up to 11 inches (27.94 cm) of snow, leading directly to numerous school dismissals across affected districts. The NWS offices in Albany and Binghamton, New York, had issued winter storm warnings on Monday afternoon, December 1, upgrading prior advisories for areas anticipating substantial accumulation.

The broader regional impact placed over 55 million people in the US under some form of winter weather warning, according to CNN reporting. The NWS office in Gray, Maine, specifically cautioned residents about plowable snow that would bring moderate travel disruptions to the area. In a measure to mitigate hazards from the anticipated heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued Executive Order No. 406, declaring a state of emergency for five northwestern counties—Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren—effective at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.

As the system moved through the region, heavy snow, wind, and ice created treacherous driving conditions from New England down to the mid-Atlantic, resulting in widespread commute delays and highway incidents. For example, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission activated its full winter response, deploying more than 600 workers to clear nearly 3,000 miles of lanes and implementing vehicle restrictions on major interstates. Following the storm's peak intensity, meteorological stabilization was forecast for New Jersey, with high pressure expected to return and temperatures projected to moderate to between 35°F and 41°F (2°C to 5°C) by Wednesday.

This event, marking the third significant winter storm in a week for some locations, signals an active start to the meteorological winter season, which climate scientists define as the period from December through February for consistent recordkeeping. The rapid pressure drop characterizing the storm's intensification into a bomb cyclone generated gusty winds along the New England coast, underscoring the immediate logistical and economic challenges posed by the first major winter weather event of the 2025 season.