April Weather 2012: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio And Other States Face Unusual Storm

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A nor'easter is bringing a taste of winter to communities that were basking in record warmth a month ago.

The storm churned up the Northeast on Monday packing high winds, soaking rain and springtime snow.

Some schools are closed and there are fears of widespread power outages. Utilities already report about 50,000 customers without power in Pennsylvania and central and western New York.

The earliest hits were on higher ground, where snow-laden tree limbs pulled down power lines and commuters navigated slushy roads to work and school.

The storm will continue into Tuesday morning. Up to 16 inches of snow are possible in higher elevations south of Buffalo. The lakeside city is expecting 5 to 9 inches. Higher elevations of central and western Pennsylvania could get up to 12 inches.

Loading Slideshow

• Times Square

  People walk through New York's Times Square, Sunday, April 22, 2012. A spring nor'easter is hitting the East Coast on Sunday and is expected to bring rain and heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early Monday, a punctuation to a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

• People with umbrellas, and some without, traverse New York's Times Square, Sunday, April 22, 2012. A spring nor'easter rumbled along the East Coast on Sunday and was expected to bring rain and heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early Monday, a punctuation to a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

• Umbrellas shelter people waiting to buy Broadway theater tickets in New York's Times Square, Sunday, April 22, 2012. A spring nor'easter rumbled along the East Coast on Sunday and was expected to bring rain and heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early Monday, a punctuation to a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

• A woman is seen reflected in a mosaic on the side of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore as rain falls, Sunday, April 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

• Steve Madeja, owner of Leisure Lawn Service lays down the trees and shrubbery inventory he has for sale at his garden shop in Cranberry, Pa., Butler County on Sunday, April 22, 2012. He heard the weather reports of heavy snow expected in the area and is trying to protect his investment from some damage by laying them all down.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

• Dillon Gee

  New York Mets starting pitcher Dillon Gee works out in an empty Citi Field after their baseball game against the San Francisco Giants was postponed due to weather, Sunday, April 22, 2012, in New York. A spring nor'easter along the East Coast is expected to bring rain and heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early Monday, a punctuation to a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

• Fans stand in the rain while looking through the gates into Citi Field after the baseball game between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants was postponed due to weather, Sunday, April 22, 2012, in New York. A spring nor'easter along the East Coast is expected to bring rain and heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early Monday, a punctuation to a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

• NOAA CLOUDS

  This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, April 23, 2012 at 1:45 a.m. EDT shows dense, widespread cloud cover over the Northeast as a strong storm system along the New Jersey coast pounds the Northeast with strong winds, showers, areas of moderate to heavy rainfall, and areas of heavy, wet snowfall. Flood Advisories and Flood Watches remain in effect for the New England coast, while Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings remain in effect for the Lower Great Lakes and Central Appalachians. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

• A passer-by uses an umbrella while walking past tulips in the Boston Public Garden, in Boston, Sunday, April 22, 2012. The National Weather Service has said that areas around Boston are likely to see two to three-and-a-half inches of rain from a spring nor'easter that is to pass through the area beginning Sunday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

• An American flag is seen through rain drops on a window as rain falls in Baltimore, Sunday, April 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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Comments

[spikedance]

12:55 AM on 04/24/2012

Well it rained here in NYC. Whoopee. This was no nor'easter.

[LeFlaneur]

12:18 AM on 04/24/2012

The article that relates to global warming isn't this one. It's the one that says arctic shipping lanes will be open in 5 years.

[ahetty2000]

11:22 PM on 04/23/2012

Typical spring rain here in central NH - no snow expected here - just a little freezing rain on Mt Washington's summit..

[ahetty2000]

11:06 PM on 04/23/2012

No snow here in central NH - just a cool HEAVY rain!!!

[jforgit9]

08:44 PM on 04/23/2012

Pretty much just a normal spring rain here in MA...and much needed too.

[snewell]

08:44 PM on 04/23/2012

YEAH, LETS JUST KEEP BURNING MORE OIL AND COAL FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AttaDave]

12:04 AM on 04/24/2012

Yeah, and last year when most of the country experienced huge snowfalls and blizzards that was global warming too? This year we have had hardly any snow and warmer spring temps and that is because of global warming. You looney tune people want to blame everything on global warming.
I will continue to burn more oil and coal and you can continue to stuff Al Gore's pockets.

[robchevy56]

01:04 AM on 04/24/2012

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lenape105]

01:47 PM on 04/24/2012

While you can't blame any single abnormal weather event on global warming, there is definitely a trend of more abnormal events occurring. As one commentator explained it, you can't say any particular home run was due to the batter taking steroids, but steroids increase the odds the batter will hit more home runs.
You go ahead and continue to reject the concept of AGW. You can apologize to your grandkids.

[chendri887]

08:23 PM on 04/23/2012

I hate climate change. Seems that the normal seasonal pattern out here in southern California has been perpetually out of whack since the late 1990s, with hot and dry becoming the predominate mono-seasonal pattern.

[belldn3]

08:04 PM on 04/23/2012

Call it a cleansing, much needed one at that.

[eghbert]

07:57 PM on 04/23/2012

All that cold is obviously caused by the global cooling that the experts said we were having back in the seventies, before they changed it to global warming, and now to climate change. We've had climate change all my life. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Climate changes every few months. And if we look at the estimates frome people who look as fossils and say those fossils are very old, we can believe that there has been heating and cooling of the earth for as far back as people admit there has been an earth. Even before man ever stepped foot on the planet. Some people are so arrogant and conceited though as to believe that we humans are actually making a significant change in the earths climate. It reminds me of the flea who mounted the elephant to make love with her and said, "Suffer Big Mama,"

[djo2013]

08:03 PM on 04/23/2012

No, the climate doesn't change every few months. The weather changes. There's a big difference. You're revealing a lack of understanding of the science.

[eghbert]

08:08 PM on 04/23/2012

how long IS a long period? You're revealing a lack of understanding of people having different ideas of a long period of time.

[snewell]

08:46 PM on 04/23/2012

WEATHER IS NOT THE SAME THING AS CLIMATE!! LEARNED THAT IN METEOROLOGY CLASS 101 ABOUT TWENTY YEARS AGO.

[eghbert]

08:59 PM on 04/23/2012

find a Webster's dictionary and look up the defintion. If weather conditions are NOT a part of climate? Then why do climatologists point at current WEATHER conditions when they are trying to make a point?

[Abusymomof4]

07:44 PM on 04/23/2012

Here in Northeast Ohio - been sunny today, but INCREDIBLY windy -

[websailor]

07:25 PM on 04/23/2012

It is not just this year it has been going on through out the world for about 5 years. Wonder if the eath's axis is off?

[krisnelson800]

07:07 PM on 04/23/2012

a sign of the end of the world??? It could very well be. HAPPY DECEMBER 21ST, 2012!!!

[ahetty2000]

11:09 PM on 04/23/2012

It does seem like that - ALL the WHACKY weather we're having - PEOPLE BECOME unhinged & unglued and CRAZIER all the time. Maybe the Mayans were onto something!!

[Mr Ware]

05:14 PM on 04/23/2012

Unusual??? Does that now mean that the whole 'April Showers' phrase is now somehow dead?
I BLAME FOX NEWS!!!

[AttaDave]

12:07 AM on 04/24/2012

I blame George Bush. It has to be his fault.

[Steve Hosek]

05:02 PM on 04/23/2012

I work in NYC and yesterday was HORRIBLE here. I hate the damn rain.

[Z06Corvette500]

04:22 PM on 04/23/2012

I'm just north of Buffalo and it is only raining out.It snowed for for 1/2 hour and didn't stick.

[ahetty2000]

11:12 PM on 04/23/2012

Elevation means EVERYTHING with these spring nor-easters. Especially when you're on the "cold side" of the storm. Buffalo & Rochester - just a slushy inch or two on grassy surfaces. Drive 30 minutes south into the higher terrain along the NY/PA border and it's OVER A FOOT!!

[rackrunneragain]

12:42 AM on 04/24/2012

yup around the Jamstown area