The storm closed Connecticut schools and most government offices Monday. Gov. Ned Lamont has declared a state of emergency and banned commercial vehicles from Connecticut's highways.
During a news briefing a little before noon Monday, the state's emergency management director said both the commercial vehicle ban and state of emergency remained in effect until further notice. The state's severe cold weather protocol was also enacted Sunday and remains in effect.
William Turner, the emergency management director, emphasized people should stay off the roads.
"While a full travel ban is not in effect, the travel is still very treacherous," Turner said during Monday's news conference. "The more we can keep everybody home and hunkered down for the storm, the easier it'll be for our emergency responders to respond to those emergency calls."
Storm results in thousands of outages, no fatalities reported
The storm resulted in thousands of power outages Monday. Eversource, the state's largest power utility, warned Sunday that "several hundreds thousand customers" could lose power. Full restoration may take days, the company's president of Connecticut operations said.
Turner said he had "no update to that timeline" Monday. He noted officials expected outages to "tick up," but that so far the number had been holding steady at about 15,000 between the state's two major electrical utilities.
Thousands of flights in and out of the United States were canceled Monday. The flight tracking service FlightAware said more than 5,300 U.S. flights were canceled as of Monday morning.
In Connecticut, Tweed New Haven Regional Airport closed Sunday and was not expected to open until 8 p.m. Monday . Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks was open Monday, but more than 90% of flights had been canceled, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Airport Authority said.
No fatalities had been reported as of Monday afternoon, officials said.
Mike Hamill, a sergeant with the Connecticut State Police, said during the briefing that there had been two crashes with minor injuries.
Troopers had responded to "multiple" jack-knifed tractor-trailers, Hamill said.
"We want to stress again the governor's commercial travel ban. Keeping those vehicles off the roadway make it a lot easier for DOT to keep the roads clear," he added, referring to the state Department of Transportation.
Parts of CT experience first blizzard in 8 years
For the first time in eight years, the National Weather Service has confirmed that blizzard criteria had been met along the Connecticut shoreline. Bridgeport, New Haven, and Groton all have seen at least three consecutive hours of falling/blowing snow with wind gusts over 35 mph and visibility of a quarter-mile or less.
This marked the first blizzard in Connecticut since January 4, 2018, when the shoreline also qualified with several hours of blizzard conditions.
Inland locations are yet to reach that criteria, but several towns are on their way. As of 9 a.m., most weather stations in the state were reporting winds gusting over 35 mph with visibility ranging from a quarter-mile to three-quarters of a mile. Intermittent whiteout conditions are expected at times over the next 3 to 6 hours across Connecticut.
Despite being used colloquially to refer to heavy snowfall, a blizzard is actually defined by a combination of high wind and low visibility, rather than by the volume of snow.
To officially qualify as a blizzard in Connecticut, the following criteria must be met for at least three consecutive hours: sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or greater, visibility reduced to one-quarter mile or less due to falling and/or blowing snow and widespread conditions meeting those thresholds.
The storm experienced bombogenesis, a rapid intensification over a short period of time more popularly called a "bomb cyclone." It's projected to dump up to 2 feet of snow on parts of Connecticut.
Heavy snow and high wind gusts
As of Monday morning, parts of the state had already recorded more than a foot, with 22 inches reported in Chester.
The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning across the state as winds gusting as high as 55 mph early Monday caused visibility to deteriorate along the state's highways.
During a news conference Sunday ahead of the major snow state officials urged people to stay off the roads.
"We got the trucks off the roads starting at 5 o'clock. You stay off the roads as well," Lamont said Sunday, referring to the time Sunday afternoon when the ban on commercial vehicles on highways went into effect.
"It's just incredibly dangerous. could get really slick," the governor added.
Garrett T. Eucalitto, the state transportation commissioner, noted the storm would bring a heavy wet snow that would take longer to clear than the light, fluffy snow that fell in the late January storm.
"We are asking people to be the safest place possible during this course of the storm which is to stay home," he said.
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