A blizzard that buried much of the Northeast and New England left a heavy blanket over the region Tuesday morning. Three feet of snow fell on parts of Rhode Island, where city plows were knocked out of commission for several hours in Providence, while more than 350 vehicles were stranded on icy roads in Massachusetts.

“This appears to be the most historic blizzard we’ve received,” said Josh Estrella, a spokesperson for the city of Providence, where 33 inches of snow — a record by a wide margin — had fallen by midafternoon Monday. At T.F. Green International Airport near Providence, an unofficial total of 37.9 inches was recorded at 7 p.m.

The wet snow and strong winds snapped tree limbs and bedeviled battalions of shovelers. At the storm’s peak, well over 500,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast were without power, including nearly 300,000 in Massachusetts and about 100,000 in New Jersey, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.

On Cape Cod, more than 85% of customers were still without power as of 9:30 p.m. Monday. Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts restricted travel in Barnstable County, which includes all of the Cape, and two neighboring counties on Monday afternoon, and lowered the speed limit on the Massachusetts Turnpike to 40 mph.

Healey implored people to stay home and allow plows to clear the snow, so that line crews could restore power. “We’ll let you know when you can be back on the roads,” she said.

Here’s What Else to Know:

— New York impacts: Nearly 20 inches of snow fell in Central Park — the ninth-highest total on record. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a pay boost for emergency shovelers to $30 an hour, up from about $19. He said that more than 800 shovelers were already out on the streets, and that school would be held in person Tuesday.

— Serious snowfall: The National Weather Service’s snowfall map showed preliminary measurements of 3 feet at four spots on Rhode Island. Highest totals in other states included 33.7 inches in Whitman, Massachusetts; 31 inches in Islip, New York, on Long Island; nearly 31 in Stonington, Connecticut, and Lyndhurst, New Jersey; 22.1 in Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania; 21 in Long Neck, Delaware; 16 in Bishopville, Maryland; and 15 inches in Wintergreen, Virginia, and Camden-on-Gauley, West Virginia.

— Long aftermath: The combination of wet, heavy snow and strong winds felled trees and caused power outages in Boston. But city residents hunkered down well, said Michelle Wu, the city’s mayor, noting “fewer EMS and fire calls than usual.” The streets could take a long time to clean up, especially since more snow is expected this week.

— Travel snarls: The vast majority of flights in and out of airports in Boston and around New York City on Monday were canceled, according to FlightAware, with more than 5,600 flights canceled nationwide. NJ Transit halted all trains, buses and light rail indefinitely, though the schedule board at Penn Station in Newark clickety-clacked as normal, updating the departures of trains going nowhere.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Andy Newman and Jacey Fortin/José A. Alvarado
c. 2026 The New York Times Company